Mirrors Of Vengeance: Sasuke Love Story
by AnimeIsPerfection
Summary: Hyuuga Hotaru, kidnapped at the age of three by Orochimaru, was made mute but escaped and gained the ability to use telepathy. She's secluded, hard working, and out to get revenge on the main branch of her clan for what happened several years ago. Uchiha Sasuke has similar goals and they soon realize their connections. Together, how will they handle their veangeful ambitions?
1. Flashback

.:Mirrors of Vengeance:. (Sasuke Love Story) *part 1*

I gazed at my reflection in the cool shimmering water… lavender eyes, very long and dark brown hair, pale skin… Sometimes I wonder if I look ordinary. Not that it matters all that much. I'm not like those girls that care only about whether or not the Uchiha will look at them.

Uchiha Sasuke. We were neck and neck for the position of number one rookie of the year. That is, until the final exam. It just so happens, that Sasuke made five clones… I made four. And so, he took first place by one point in our silent rivalry. By 'silent rivalry', I mean we never actually made the rivalry official. It was kind of like we both wanted the title but it wasn't like we hated each other over it, if you know what I mean.

Yeah, Neji Onii-san was a little disappointed in me. I know he wanted me to be the number one rookie of the year like he had been last year, but what can I say? It wasn't like Iruka-sensei gave us an exact number of clones to make.

I stood at the edge of the small pond and activated my byakugan. I made a clone and dropped to a fighting stance. I darted forward and struck out at the clone, which blocked and struck back. For a while, I battled the clone, steadily increasing my speed. Suddenly, a human shaped chakra came into my field of view. I ignored the figure until he stopped and hid behind a nearby tree. Evidently he didn't know of my abilities otherwise he wouldn't have bothered hiding.

I sighed, inwardly and turned towards him. A short blond haired boy wearing an orange jump suit strolled out from his 'hiding place'. He scratched his head and laughed nervously.

"Hey…Umm, sorry to interrupt…I recognized you from Iruka-sensei's class. You're that girl who never talks! Ya know, you're pretty strong so I'd like to fight you some time!"

I raised an eyebrow. Does he really think he stands a chance against me? This boy was Uzumaki Naruto. The class clown. There is no way I am going to waste my time on someone like him.

He pointed a finger at me and yelled, "Don't even think about doubting me!" Too late. "I am Uzumaki Naruto and I will become Hokage one day! Tell me who you are!"

"_My name… is Hyūga Hotaru. I don't have time to deal with the likes of you."_

Naruto stumbled backwards and gasped, "Whoa! Who was that! I heard a voice in my head!" He looked around franticly.

I rolled my eyes_. "That was me you idiot. You see, I cannot talk verbally. That ability was taken away from me when I was three years old. Instead, I speak through telepathy."_

His eyes widened as I explained this to him. "HOW?" he yelled, "That's not possible!"

"_Clearly it is."_ I closed my eyes as images flashed through my mind:

I was three years old when it happened.

***flashback***

Neji and I walked through the forest. "Ne, Onii-san! It's is your birthday, so you get to meet Hinata-sama! You're lucky! I have to wait until next year."

Neji laughed. "I will get to watch her train too. I would like to see how skilled she is with our kekkei genkai."

I knelt and plucked a daisy from the lush grass, "Onii-san, will you teach me the new things you learn while you are with Hinata-sama?" I asked eagerly.

Neji sighed and replied, "Of course I will. I have to go now so I'll see you later okay?"

I smiled and nodded.

Once Neji had gone, a figure approached me. Startled, I jumped to my feet. He was tall and had long black hair and his face resembled that of a snake's. He sneered and said, "You are of the side branch and have not yet been placed under the Hyūga family's cursed seal. I could make good use of you."

I found the man frightening and I slowly backed away. In the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of me and hit the back of my head knocking me out. He grabbed me by the waist and jumped away with me hanging limply at his side.

When I awoke, I discovered that I was strapped to a cold metal table. Tubes were attached to my throat, head and near the corners of my eyes. It was unclear of what had happened, the only thing that was different was that from then on, I was unable to speak verbally and I could use telepathy. I remember wrenching myself free from the tubes and leather restraints with the help of my byakugan. I managed to find my way out of the hideout and return to konohagakure.

Apparently, I had only been gone for a day but nevertheless a search party had been sent out to find me. Once I was returned home, I visited the Hokage and the elders. I could not speak, however, as long as I know a person's name and face, I can speak to them. From the information I gave, they determined that I had been kidnapped by an S-ranked villain named Orochimaru.

A little time later, I concluded that Orochimaru had not been trying to readjust my vocal organs or my optical organs. In fact, what he had really been trying to adjust was my brain waves. Because he had done very few experiments with brain waves, he mistook my vocal brain waves for my optical brain waves. Orochimaru was most likely attempting to alter my optical nerves but ended up cutting off the vocal waves. In the process of doing this, he must have accidentally unlocked a section of the brain that normal humans have not been able to reach. That is what activated the telepathy.

I was also told that the main branch had disposed of my father. Mother was devastated and abandoned her role as our mother. Neji and I became different ever since that day. When I turned four and received the cursed seal, Neji began to think that there was no way to change the fate of the low-life side branch.

Neji worked hard and became strong though, and I believe that is because a part of him wanted to prove himself wrong. I on the other hand, searched for a way to break the curse but my efforts were to no avail. I too trained hard and became strong. I hate the main branch and everyone in it. I have good reason too. They destroyed our lives and even if my cousin Hinata-sama had no part, the fact remains that she I of the main branch; she sees our pain and does nothing to lift the weight away. What is more is that she is weak; she trains but not as much as she should. She is called the princess of the Hyūga clan and yet she does not live up to her title. It is infuriating that the daughter of the main branch elder is weak and lacks confidence. If I became the strongest shinobi in the entire Hyūga clan, I would still be looked down upon and Hinata would still be treated like a queen.

***end flashback***

I snapped back to reality when I heard Neji calling my name. "Hotaru-chan, let's go. We need to train."

I turned and saw Neji, Lee and Tenten heading towards the training grounds. I followed after them, leaving Naruto to freak out over the abnormal fact that telepathy did actually exist.

I usually trained with the three of them. Neji and I practiced the normal taijutsu and trained to expand our byakugan's 360 degree visual field. Lee worked with me on speed and I had progressed a lot. I was almost as fast as Lee was without his weights but I still needed training because it tired me out. Tenten worked with me on my ultimate defense; rotation. I practiced Ninjutsu on my own.

A few hours later, we decided to call it quits. The next day, all of the rookies were going to receive their squads. I sighed wondering if I would get a team with anyone that would actually be of some use….


	2. Introductions

.:Mirrors of Vengeance:. (Sasuke Love Story) *part 2*

In this story, there is a lot of hate toward Hinata and the main branch but don't get me wrong. I personally have nothing against Hinata; in fact she's actually my favorite female character. This is just the way the story turned out. When Hotaru speaks telepathy it's in italics. Also, if Hotaru is 'speaking' I might still use verbs like 'muttered' or 'grumbled' and that is implying that that is the way she sounded in her head and whoever else's head her voice is in. I hope that isn't too confusing. Enjoy!

The wind whispered softly as I walked to the academy the next morning. All was quiet on the street. I always woke early in the morning, and thus, I always arrived at the academy before call time.

I strolled through the doors and I was not surprised to see that most of the other students had arrived early too, probably because of the growing anticipation.

Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino were fighting as always; I ignored their squeals aimed at Sasuke and walked right past. I sat in the empty seat next to Nara Shikamaru, who was sleeping, as always.

Shikamaru and I were what you might call friends. Sometimes I go to his house and we play shoji. He is far smarter than most people might think. His IQ has got to be at least 200. I am a close match though. My IQ is roughly 197.

Shikamaru is about the only person, other than Neji that treats me like I matter. Most people either avoid me because they see me as a threat or they look down on me because I am in the side branch of the Hyūga family. Shikamaru treats me more like how Neji treats me; like how a brother would treat his younger sister. It's incredibly hard to explain because I haven't had much social experience but the best way I can put it is this; Neji and Shikamaru are like gentle and protective teachers. Of course, Shikamaru is lazier about it but you get the point.

I closed my eyes and ignored the commotion in the classroom. I am quite good at drowning out things that I don't care about or don't want to hear.

Eventually everything got really quiet and I opened my eyes to find Naruto and Sasuke…kissing? My first thoughts were 'Heh, sucks for them'. Why? Well because Naruto, a short time later was being beaten to a pulp by a bunch of angry fan-girls, and Sasuke, well, Sasuke is the most popular guy our age so of course that's going to ruin his reputation. (Laughs silently)

Finally Iruka-sensei walks in and yells at everyone to shut up, or at least that's how I take it. Many names are called and I was starting to get bored. Eventually I stopped listening until Shikamaru nudged me.

"_What?"_ I grumbled.

"He just called your team." Shikamaru whispered to me.

I sighed, _"Would it be too troublesome for you to tell me who's on my team?" _Note the sarcasm.

He rolled his eyes and replied "Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke."

I groaned silently thinking 'Great, I'm with a loser, a fan-girl and an arrogant genius.'

Naruto began complaining and then Sakura asked "Why are the both top students on the same team?" I guess you could say that caught my attention.

"Well," Iruka began, "Not only to balance out the fact that Naruto was the worst, but also your team lacks a sensory type ninja so we placed Hotaru on your team." That makes sense but they could have put me on Shikamaru's team too then… but I'm assuming that whoever our Jōnin teacher is, he or she must be more skilled than the others; why else would he be the one with the only four student team?

Later on I went to the meeting room and we waited for our teacher…we waited for like…a long time. I think I fell asleep because the next thing I remember was seeing a man covered in chalk dust and Naruto cracking up.

I yawned as the man said "Hmm, how can I say this? My first impression is… I hate you guys" our faces were something like this: =_=

Then I realized that he was wearing a mask. I sighed and activated my byakugan. I wouldn't be able to communicate with him unless I knew what his face looked like. His face looked quite normal. I wondered why he needed a mask…

We headed up to the roof and our sensei began, "Well, let's begin with introducing ourselves."

"What do you want to know?" asked Naruto.

How about your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future and things like that," replied sensei.

"Hey, hey," yelled Naruto, "Why don't you introduce yourself to us first?"

Yeah, you look kinda suspicious…" muttered Sakura.

"Oh, me?" he said, "Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes…Dreams for the future, hmm, and I have lots of hobbies.

"So…" grumbled Sakura, "All he told us…is his name…?"

"Now it's your turn. Let's start on the right," announced Kakashi-sensei, pointing to Naruto.

Naruto pretty much just went on and on about ramen and becoming Hokage. Then Sakura squealed a lot…probably about Sasuke. Then it was Sasuke's turn and I was actually listening, thinking that he might be a little more interesting.

My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are lots of things I dislike and I don't really like anything and… I can't really call it a dream… But I have an ambition; the resurrection of my clan and…to kill a certain man.

Sakura and Naruto looked shocked but I just smirked. Then Kakashi-sensei turned to me, "You're last."

I paused for a moment _"Why do you wear a mask when your face is completely normal?"_ He looked rather surprised, probably because I had my byakugan activated. "Whatever, it doesn't matter" I muttered.

Then I began my introduction, _"My name is Hyūga Hotaru. I cannot speak verbally and so I use telepathy. Do not ask how that came to be, because I have no intention of telling you. What I dislike is not your business and there aren't many things that I like… besides apples. My hobbies; I train for a long time every day and…I guess you could say playing the violin is also a hobby. My 'dreams'; I wish to grow strong to gain the respect of the Hyūga main branch. I also intend to take revenge for what happened 9 years ago." _They stared at me for a moment, the same looks they gave Sasuke. Sasuke looked…was that… understanding? He went back to his cold stare an instant later so I thought nothing of it.

"Tomorrow we'll start our duties as shinobi," said Kakashi-sensei.

Naruto leapt up and down asking what kind of duties and Kakashi-sensei replied, "Survival training." Sakura and Naruto complained loudly and I just sighed. Why is my team full of annoying brats? Kakashi bent down to our level and murmured, "Of the 27 graduates, only 9 will be chosen to become genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy. This training is a very difficult exam with a failure rate of over 66%!" Of course we were all horrified. Again my ears were filled with obnoxious complaints and eventually Kakashi-sensei told us where to eat and warned us not to eat breakfast.

I walked home after completing some Ninjutsu training. I ignored my mother as I headed to the kitchen. She was cooped up in her room, as always. I don't know what she was doing but she would often break out in angry fits and destroy her room. It sounded like she was doing that right now. Ever since dad died it's been like this. At first she just cried but now she's just insanely pissed.

I washed the disgusting stack of piled up dishes in the sink and I dusted a bit. I had taken the burden upon myself to do all the house work. Neji paid for food, clothes and crap like that with the money he earned from his missions.

Once I was finished, I grabbed a couple apples and headed towards a small hut Neji and I had made in the forest. We never slept at home. Mom would probably kick us out anyways. The only reason we haven't actually moved out yet is because all the food and toiletries are at home and I guess we also feel the need to look after Mom even though she doesn't really care about us anymore.

When I got to the 'hideout', as I liked to call it, Neji was outside practicing the rotation technique. He nodded to me and I went in and hopped into my sleeping bag. I lay there for a while before falling into yet another night of uneasy sleep.


	3. Expectations

.:Mirrors of Vengeance:. (Sasuke Love Story) *part 3*

The next morning when I awoke, I grabbed two of the apples I had retrieved from home last night. I ate as I walked and when I reached the meeting point, the other three were already waiting. They pretty much ignored me and we all stood in an awkward silence until Naruto and Sakura started complaining about Kakashi being late.

"_Geez, they are so frickin annoying."_ I thought to Sasuke. He sighed and nodded. I decided to go looking for Kakashi-sensei and said, again to Sasuke, _"I'm going to look for him."_

"Hn…" was all he said in reply.

As I jumped away I heard Sakura and Naruto yelling at me to come back. I rolled my eyes.

I looked in multiple places around town and eventually on my way back, I spotted a figure standing by the KIA memorial. I walked up and stood beside Kakashi and stared at the memorial. I figured that he knew I was there but I wasn't going to say anything; I didn't want to interrupt his thoughts of whatever or whoever it was that he was remembering. Eventually he looked down at me blankly.

"_So this is why you're always late… The others are waiting. I won't tell them about this if you don't want me too, however, if they did know, they might not yell at you as much but I suppose you want to keep this private."_ I said.

Kakashi nodded and replied, "Yes, thank you."

I, too, nodded and walked away. When I got back, Sasuke muttered, "Any luck?"

"_No,"_ I lied.

A few minutes later Kakashi-sensei showed up. I quickly plugged my ears as Naruto and Sakura screamed, "YOU'RE LATE!"

Kakashi waved lazily and muttered "Hey guys," he adjusted a timer and continued on to explain that we had to get three bells leaving one person out and that anyone who didn't get a bell before noon wouldn't get lunch. I sneered as the others gasped, realizing that they had been tricked. He also said that we would have no chance unless we went all out as if aiming to kill.

Naruto and Sakura (I have to wonder why it's always those two), complained and mocked Kakashi-sensei. Seriously, do they ever think? Kakashi is a Jōnin and anyone who has done proper research knows that he is an incredibly powerful ninja. We are quite lucky to be his students.

While I thought this over, Naruto attacked Kakashi who very quickly turned the tables and put Naruto in a defenseless position. Figures... Sasuke and Sakura looked impressed. Kakashi chuckled and said, "It seems like I'm finally beginning to like you guys. Ok, let's get started. Ready… BEGIN!"

We leapt away. I activated my byakugan and hid as far away as possible while still keeping Kakashi-sensei and the others within my field of view. Sasuke and Sakura were well hidden but Naruto… I groaned inwardly. Does that kid do anything right? I mean who challenges an elite Jōnin without knowing their abilities and making a plan first? Oh, right…Naruto does. ***face-palm***

Naruto crossed his arms and yelled "Come here and fight me!"

Kakashi scratched the back of his head and muttered, "Umm, you're a little bit off…"

"The only thing that is a little bit off is your hair cut!" Naruto charged.

So Naruto attacked but failed even after Kakashi started reading a book. I was rather impressed with Kakashi-sensei's skills but then again, he's a Jōnin so that is only to be expected.

I snickered silently when Kakashi catapulted Naruto into a lake just by poking his ass. Naruto kept trying and for a moment he caught him from behind but Kakashi-sensei used a lighting fast replacement jutsu and just used one of the Naruto clones instead of the usual log.

Eventually Naruto got caught in a trap and Sasuke attacked but that too, was a replacement. Sakura ran off and I headed in the same direction. Unfortunately, Sakura fell for some stupid Genjutsu, thinking that Sasuke was dying… **-_-' **

I easily found Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei. I watched them spar and Sasuke was, by far, the closest to success. He battled well and even managed to touch one of the bells. Sasuke used his fireball jutsu, much to Kakashi's surprise but ended up being trapped underground with an earth style Ninjutsu. Kakashi leapt away.

Sasuke glared at me as I jumped out of a tree and followed Kakashi without even glancing at him.

I pulled my hair into a pony-tail, sped up, and then landed in front of Kakashi-sensei. I wasted no time in activating my Byakugan and attacking immediately. When it comes to taijutsu, the one who strikes first gains the advantage. I was throwing punches and kicks fast and used Lee and Neji's training to my advantage. Kakashi seemed shocked at first because of my speed and eventually he realized if he simply blocked my attacks, he would still receive damage to his chakra points.

"I must say," he said, "You and Sasuke are far more advanced than the others. You might possibly be even stronger than Sasuke despite the fact that he is the number one rookie. I'd like to see the two of you spar sometime."

I raised an eyebrow_, "I'd like that too. The only person who trains harder than me is my brother. I deserved the title but Sasuke received it by mere chance."_

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at my cockiness, and whipped out a kunai. He slashed at my forehead protector; it fell to the ground. I winced, knowing that he could now see my curse mark but I didn't let up on my attacks. He nodded and said, "What you told us at the introductions was true; you are from the side branch but you have almost mastered the Hyūga clan kekkei genkai."

I sneered and replied, _"Just because I am of the side branch, does not make me any lower that the main branch no matter how much they discriminate against us. I have no intention of letting myself be controlled by their foolish and untrusting ways."_ I lunged forward, dodged the kunai and pierced his shoulder with two of my fingers, right on one of his chakra points. He flinched and I took the opportunity to wrap my fingers around one of the bells; at that moment he poofed away. I swore loudly inside my head and headed back to the posts.

When I arrived Naruto was tied to a post and Sakura and Sasuke were sitting next to him. I leaned against one of the unoccupied posts. Kakashi-sensei nodded to me and began his little speech; "Well, about the training…there is no need for any of you to return to the academy…" Naruto cheered and Sakura and Sasuke looked pleased. Then Kakashi dropped the bomb: "Yep, all of you should be dropped from the program permanently." Our jaws dropped and we were all probably thinking 'AH SHIT!'

Naruto yelled angrily and suddenly Sasuke charged at Kakashi who pinned him to the ground. I narrowed my eyes and thought to myself, 'If that's how it's going to be, I'll train and do things my own way.'

Kakashi sighed and explained, "Why do you think you were divided into teams and are doing this training?" Sakura shook her head in confusion and Kakashi continued, "Basically… you guys do not understand the answer to this test."

Then it dawned on me and I said to them, _"Oh…It's teamwork."_

They looked at me and gaped but Kakashi-sensei pointed at me gravely and said, "Yes, and that is what this team is lacking. The four of you working together may have had a better chance at getting the bells."

Kakashi explained that because there were only three bells, one person would have to be sacrificed. He told us each, in turn, what we did wrong. Kakashi continued on to explain to Naruto what KIA meant and then told us to eat but not give any to Naruto otherwise we will fail.

Kakashi left and Naruto's stomach growled. At the same moment, Sasuke and I both offered our food to Naruto, much to Sakura and Naruto's surprise. Sakura yelled at us for not following directions and Sasuke replied, "Don't worry. I don't sense him anywhere near. After lunch, we'll work together to get the bells. Without food, he'll just be in the way and that will only hurt us."

I nodded in agreement and added, _"I had a few apples this morning so it's not like I'm starving. We're going to need all the strength we can muster to be able to retrieve those bells."_

Suddenly, dark clouds swirled above us and Kakashi-sensei appeared, making us all reel back in alarm. "You guys," he shouted menacingly, then his face softened and the clouds parted, "…**pass! 3**" We were all rather confused so Kakashi explained, "You are the first. Everyone else followed the rules like I told them to. In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum, that's true, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum." Kakashi gave us a thumb's up and declared, "Starting tomorrow, team 7 will begin its duties!" We cheered. I took a moment to slash Naruto free of the rope with a Kunai.

I went home without training; I think I had enough of that…. I jumped onto the roof of the hideout and pulled a small summoning scroll out of my weapon pouch. _"Kuchiyose no jutsu; the art of summoning,"_ I murmured and bit my thumb and slammed my hand down on the open scroll. There was a poof and my reddish-brown violin and bow appeared. I always kept it sealed inside the scroll, mostly because I liked taking it with me where ever I went and keeping it there was a better way of transportation. I positioned it in the crook of my neck, rested my chin on the chin-rest and placed the bow on the strings.

I closed my eyes and as I played the mysterious melody, Kakashi-sensei's words came drifting back to me: **"In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum, that's true, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum."** Those words left a distinct impact on me but whether or not I would heed them… well, at this point nothing but fate could tell….


	4. Reasoning

.:Mirrors of Vengeance:. (Sasuke Love Story) *part 4*

The Next day, we found a lost cat and returned it to its fat, over-loving owner… poor cat. Anyway, it was a stupid and easy '**mission**' if you even consider something like that a mission.… Seriously, how is this making us stronger? Oh wait, it's not…

We were back at the Hokage's and Naruto was making a big fuss about wanting a more challenging mission and for once, I agree with him. Then the Hokage went into some long explanation about mission ranks that I probably already was aware of. I closed my eyes and tuned out their obnoxious voices and silently recited the music I had been playing on my violin last night. Eventually I snapped back to reality when I heard Naruto cheering…with joy? I opened my eyes and heard Hokage-sama tell us we were going to go on a C ranked mission as someone's body guard. A smirk played on my lips as I thought, 'At last, something worthwhile.'

The Hokage invited the client in… first impression… not good.

Clutching a beer bottle in one hand the old man drawled, "What's this? They're a bunch of brats. You expect me to believe the short one with a stupid face is a ninja?"

Naruto looked around and laughed, "Who's the short one with a stupid face?"

Well, let me explain: Sasuke was tallest being 5ft and 3in and, I have to admit, had quite an attractive face. Sakura was 5ft and 1in and, wide forehead aside, she was pretty. I am exactly 5ft and I have never considered myself to be stupid looking, I fact I thought that I looked considerably normal but who knows, maybe someone has a different opinion? Naruto was maybe 4ft and 10…and a half inches tall; he was always grinning and because he has a very dense personality I suppose you could call him stupid looking...

I raised an eyebrow and remarked,_ "That would be you, Naruto."_

Naruto froze then spun around yelling, "I'll kill you!" at the drunkard, who we were supposed to **protect.**

Did I mention that Naruto is dense?

Kakashi-sensei managed to calm him down and we were soon informed that this man was an expert bridge builder and his name was Tazuna.

As we exited the village Naruto was shouting about his excitement and how he'd never been outside the village before. I sighed…does that kid **EVER** stop yelling…? Of course then Tazuna and Naruto started up an argument. Before it was Sakura and Naruto always arguing…now this old geezer too… 'Geez this is going to drive me insane!' I didn't doubt that Sasuke was probably thinking the same thing.

Eventually Sakura started asking questions about the country of Waves. I tuned this out just like I tuned out most things. None of this information was new to me. I read too much.

**(Author's note: Lol, the way Hotaru's personality has formed, like how she already knows stuff and tunes things out, is partly because of me not wanting to type everything out… I apologize for my laziness…Shikamaru's influence….)**

Suddenly, I noticed a puddle on the dry ground and thought, 'Wait… a puddle when it hasn't rained in ages?' I noticed Kakashi-sensei making a few hand signs but I was the only one who saw. I quickly activated my Byakugan and immediately noticed strange chakra within the puddle. _"Everyone, look out!"_ I thought urgently. A split second later two ninjas leapt out from hiding and attacked us.

A wire wrapped around Kakashi and sliced him up, though I think that was a clone. Once they finished, they lunged at Naruto, who stood frozen with shock. Sasuke came to his rescue. He knocked Naruto out of the way and landed on the ninjas' heads. He pushed himself into the air and spun around, kicking their faces. He managed to separate the two ninjas. One ran at Sakura and the other at Naruto. Sasuke dashed in front of Sakura and managed to fend him off. I intercepted the other, though Naruto suffered a small scratch. I didn't hesitate to use my fast Taijutsu Byakugan skills and gave the ninja some harsh blows, causing him to fly backwards towards a tree. Kakashi-sensei caught the ninja before he hit the tree and snatched the other ninja into a headlock.

"I'm sorry I didn't help you guys earlier, I didn't think Naruto would freeze up like that," Said Kakashi and began tying up the ninjas, "Anyway, nice job Sasuke and Hotaru."

Sasuke sneered and asked Naruto, "You alright, scaredy cat?" Naruto looked furious… fortunately Kakashi intervened before Naruto could argue.

"_Kakashi-sensei,"_ I said, but made sure everyone could hear, _"Those were hidden mist chuunins. If what we are dealing with is what I suspect, then this mission may prove to be more difficult than we have anticipated. Not that I mind…"_

Kakashi was about to respond but Tazuna interrupted, "Wait, she did that before! How is she doing that?" I sighed. By '**that**' he probably meant my telepathic ability.

To my slight surprise, Sasuke answered, "She's physically mute but can mentally speak with telepathy. Deal with it."

Kakashi nodded and continued, "Right. Anyway, Hotaru, you are correct but for further information, we're going to have to ask those ninja and Tazuna." We all looked in Tazuna's direction.

After some inquiring, the Mist ninjas realized that the reason Kakashi didn't take them out to begin with was so that he could gain information. Tazuna looked rather guilty and explained that there was some guy that wanted him dead because Tazuna was ruining his plans within the shipping industry. Kakashi looked kinda pissed and said some stuff about this being at least a B ranking mission. Basically Sakura wanted to give up, Naruto didn't want to give up (and so he stabbed himself to release the poison from his wound), Sasuke probably didn't care, and I wanted to go on to gain some experience.

Eventually we got on a boat and I dozed off as Tazuna somehow persuaded us to stay and protect him.

Later as we were walking, Naruto freaked out over a rabbit, which was white… strange for this time of year… I looked at Kakashi-sensei who nodded to me. We were thinking the same thing. I activated my Byakugan. My eyes widened but this time Kakashi beat me to the warning and yelled at everyone to get down.

A well-built man with a huge sword jumped down on us from above. "Everybody, get back," muttered Kakashi-sensei, "This is a whole different level." He pulled up his forehead protector from his left eye. I stared in awe at what I saw; Kakashi-sensei had Sharingan!

"_Kakashi-sensei,"_ I said so the others could hear as well, _"that's… the kekkei genkai Sharingan eye technique obtained only in the Uchiha family… isn't it? How did you…?"_ I glanced at Sasuke, who also seemed at a loss for words. Kakashi ignored the question and instructed us to get in formation.

It turned out that this man was an extremely dangerous missing ninja named Zabuza. Zabuza also mentioned the Sharingan, but in a mocking tone, which caused Naruto to blow up with questions about the Sharingan.

Sasuke explain all of which I knew far too well, "Sharingan…. It is said that some have the ability in their eyes to read and defeat all types of Gen, Tai and Nin-jutsus. Supposedly, it also allows you to copy any technique besides other bloodline traits. The Sharingan is one of the types of pupils that gives you this power. There are other types of eye techniques too, like the Byakugan." He looked at me, "You possess that do you not?"

I nodded.

Of course, then Naruto went on a spree asking about what Byakugan was until Kakashi-sensei shut him up and told him to stay alert.

"Now," growled Zabuza, who didn't appear to have been listening, "let's end this talking. I have to kill that old man." He sped towards Tazuna at an incredible speed only to be met by Kakashi. "But Kakashi, it seems I have to beat you first!" He spun around a tree and disappeared.

I scanned the area with my Byakugan. _"He's on the water!"_ I told them.

Zabuza grinned evilly from under his bandages and murmured, "Ninpou… Hidden mist jutsu." A strange mist surrounded him and he yet again, vanished. I scanned again but to my horror I couldn't even see Sakura's chakra, who was standing on the other side of Tazuna. My eyes widened and I gasped, _"Kakashi-sensei… my Byakugan… I can't see anything in this mist!"_

Kakashi nodded and kept still, "The hidden mist jutsu is a special jutsu that deflects certain eye techniques… including your kekkei genkai. He'll come after me first. Zabuza is an expert in silent killing. You don't even notice until you're already dead. It's not like I can use the Sharingan perfectly. You guys be careful."

From some unknown location, Zabuza began whispering the names of vital organs, wondering which he should go for first.

Sasuke began trembling and Kakashi said, "I'll protect you guys even if it kills me. I don't let… my comrades die." He smiled.

"We'll see about that!" Zabuza chuckled and appeared between us and Tazuna. "It's over." He was about to swing his ginormous sword when Kakashi-sensei leapt in front and stabbed him with a kunai. Zabuza turned into water and another clone appeared behind Kakashi. The sword sliced Kakashi from behind but he too, turned into a water clone. He had copied Zabuza's technique. Kakashi was now in the advantageous position but Zabuza snickered and mocked, "There's no way you can defeat me with your monkey-like imitations. That was impressive of you. You had already copied my jutsu but you had your clone say those words to attract my attention while the real you hid in the mist and watched me. Nice plan… But… I'm also not that easy to defeat!" Again, a clone appeared behind Kakashi and the two dueled it out. Suddenly Kakashi was thrown into the water and when he got out Zabuza was already preforming his water prison Jutsu. Zabuza advanced on us looking triumphant.

"_Crap…guys get ready…"_ We pulled out more kunai and dropped into fighting position.


	5. Caution

.:Mirrors of Vengeance:. (Sasuke Love Story) *part 5*

Zabuza snickered and said, "Wearing forehead protectors like real ninjas… but you know what? A real ninja is someone who has survived numerous brushes with death. Basically… once you're good enough to be listed in my handbook, then you can start calling yourself a ninja. You guys should not be referred to as ninjas." He disappeared and reappeared in front of Naruto, flinging him backwards and knocking off his forehead protector.

Kakashi-sensei started yelling at us. He looked panicked and shouted at us to run away. I clenched my teeth and thought_, _'Is he that much of a coward. He has no idea to what extent I can fight. Back when we were training with the bells, I didn't have the opportunity to reveal my true strength. I will not give up; that would be going against my principals.'

Naruto got up and charged at Zabuza but it turned out that he was just trying to retrieve his forehead protector. He stumbled to his feet and growled, "Hey, you eyebrow-less freak… put this in your handbook, the man who will one day become the Hokage…" he put on his forehead protector, "is the leaf village ninja, Uzumaki Naruto!" He grinned and turned to me and Sasuke, "Hey Sasuke, Hotaru, lend me your ears. I've got a plan."

Sasuke snorted but grinned and said, "what's this, teamwork from you?"

Naruto tilted up his chin and said, "Now… let's go wild!"

"A lot of arrogance, but do you stand a chance?" Zabuza wondered. Kakashi yelled at us again but Tazuna encouraged us. I suppose he finally understood our determination.

Zabuza continued his mockery but then he said something that surprised all of us. "When I was your age," he raised his hands as if he were examining them, "these hands were already dyed red with blood."

Kakashi recoiled and muttered "Devil Zabuza… long ago, in the Hidden Mist Village, also called the Blood Mist Village… there was a final obstacle in becoming a ninja."

"Hm? You even know about that graduation exam." Zabuza remarked.

"That exam…?" questioned Naruto and Zabuza snickered as Naruto continued, "What was the graduation exam?" I had a feeling that I didn't want to know.

Zabuza went into a fit of snickers then looked at us with an insane glint in his eyes, "Fights to the death between the students. Friends who have trained and eaten together at the same table are pitted against each other and go at it… until one of them loses his life. These are friends that helped each other and shared dreams…"

As Kakashi explained how that method had to be changed, my mind reeled, 'I can't imagine killing friends. Enemies I could be merciless with but friends…' Then I realized something I don't think I had accepted before; 'All the people I trained with… everyone in my class… even the team I work with right now… I suppose I do consider them friends… even though I haven't really gotten to know them, I guess I've gotten used to them being around and maybe I've even enjoyed the times we've had together.'

Suddenly I was wrenched out of my thoughts when I felt a painful impact on my gut. Zabuza had caught me off guard. I realized he had gotten Sasuke with the other fist and now he threw both of us to the ground, digging his elbow deep into our stomachs. Sasuke coughed up blood and I spat blood in Zabuza's face, blinding him for a moment. I lurched forward under his grasp and quickly brought his chakra points into view. I centered my chakra to the tips of my pointer and middle fingers and jabbed at a point in his shoulder. He fell back in pain but pulled himself up only a second later… He growled angrily and said, "Well, I see we have a Byakugan user here. I should have guessed the first time I saw you."

"_That's what you get for not listening before." _I hissed.

Sasuke and I struggled to our feet, glaring at him. I sucked in air with deep, slightly painful gasps, cursing myself for not staying focused.

Naruto used his shadow clone jutsu and surrounded Zabuza, who seemed to be enjoying this. All the clones tackled Zabuza but he spun around, cutting them up with his abnormally large sword. One of the Narutos threw Sasuke a giant shuriken which he chucked at Zabuza. It went behind him towards the real Zabuza. Naruto threw a Kunai to me which I immediately threw in the same direction as Sasuke. Both the Shuriken and Kunai divided into shadow clones of themselves. The real Zabuza looked shocked but he managed to dodge all of them.

"_We're not done yet!"_ I yelled.

Two of the weapons turned into clones of Naruto and they both shot Kunais at Zabuza. He was forced to release the water prison. Furiously, Zabuza turned and ran at Naruto with one of the huge Shuriken but Kakashi-sensei stopped it with his fist and stated proudly, "You guys have grown up."

Zabuza started ranting about how he was 'distracted' but Kakashi put a stop to that too. Zabuza started making hand signs that Kakashi copied. They weren't even half a second off! We were all amazed by Kakashi's Sharingan. It was Kakashi's turn to do the mocking. Zabuza seemed freaked out because it was almost as if Kakashi was reading his mind. This really pissed him off and he started a jutsu but somehow Kakashi beat him to it.

"How…. Can you see the future?" gasped Zabuza.

"Yeah," Kakashi-sensei declared, "You're going to die."

Suddenly several senbon needles pierced Zabuza's neck and a boy wearing a strange mask appeared on a tree branch and chuckled saying, "You're right. He's dead," in a weirdly cheerful tone of voice.

Kakashi checked the pulse and then gave the boy a suspicious glance.

The boy jumped down beside Kakashi-sensei and bowed. "Thank you very much. I have been waiting for the opportunity to kill Zabuza for a long time."

"That mask," Kakashi remarked, "You're a Hidden Mist Hunter-nin."

"Impressive, you are correct."

"Hunter-nin?" questioned Naruto, shoving past us to get a better look.

"Yes," the boy answered, "it is my job to hunt down Missing-nins. I am a member of the Hidden Mist's Hunter team."

From what I could tell, this boy was very likely around our age…

Naruto looked frantically back and forth from the boy to Zabuza then yelled, "What the hell! Who are you!"

"Don't worry Naruto, he's not an enemy," muttered Kakashi-sensei.

"I'm not asking that!" yelled Naruto, "That Zabuza… That Zabuza was killed! A guy that strong… A guy that strong was killed by a kid! By a kid not much different than me! We look stupid! How can I understand that?"

Kakashi walked over to Naruto and ruffled his hair saying, "Well, I know how you feel but… But this is also the truth. In this world, there are kids younger that you… yet stronger than me."

After all the ranting, the boy picked up Zabuza's body and said, "Your battle is now over, and now I must dispose of the body since it seems to be a body with many secrets. Farewell."

Just before he disappeared I activated my byakugan. There was chakra…running through Zabuza's… dead body…? Also from what I know don't Hunter-nins take care of the bodies on-site? I relayed my thoughts to Kakashi-sensei and just as he was about to respond, he fell to the ground, unconscious…

Everyone yelled in alarm but after we calmed down, we carried him to Tazuna's house where his daughter Tsunami looked after him. We were discussing the power of the Sharingan when Kakashi-sensei awoke. As it turns out, Kakashi was just exhausted from over-using the Sharingan. The discussion went on and Kakashi explained that all ninja's hold secrets after they die.

Regretfully, I thought to myself about the fact that my powers would disappear when I die because I am of the cursed side branch. That was another reason I was a target of scorn…

Tazuna cheered about how we defeated a strong ninja and how we should be safe for a while.

That's when I stepped into the conversation_. "Look, sorry to disappoint you but I don't think we're safe yet. In fact, it is very likely that Zabuza isn't even dead."_ They began protesting with wide eyes but I continued, _"Hunter-nins usually examine and dispose of the body right where the missing-nin was killed. Also, senbon needles aren't really used for killing and they didn't exactly hit any vital organs, veins or arteries; therefore Zabuza is probably in a temporary death state. That means that the body feels and appears dead for only a short period of time. One more thing: I used my Byakugan just before the boy left and even though it was faint, there was chakra pulsing through all of Zabuza's chakra points, save the ones I hit earlier. Based on all this, not only is Zabuza alive but also, the Hunter-nin's motive was to save Zabuza, rather than kill him."_

They stared at me like they had just seen a ghost or something… I don't blame them; I read and studied a lot and possess the Byakugan so naturally, I know more than they do.

Kakashi-sensei nodded and said, "Hotaru is absolutely correct. We can't ignore this situation."

Tazuna shifted around nervously and muttered, "Aren't you thinking too much? Hunter-nins are supposed to kill Missing-nins."

"No…with all the suspicion, we will prepare before it's too late. That's a shinobi rule. Plus, weather Zabuza is dead or alive… there's no assurances that Gatou hasn't hired an even stronger shinobi." Kakashi replied.

I sighed, starting to to get bored with the conversation. I'm around Shikamaru too much… I only half listened to Kakashi tell us we were going to spend some time training and that we were all getting stronger. Then Naruto yelled something about being noticed… Suddenly a little boy walked into the room.

"Oh! Inari! Where were you?" Tazuna asked the little boy.

"Welcome back, Grandpa." Muttered Inari.

Tazuna motioned for Inari to come closer and Tsunami said enthusiastically, "Inari, say hello to these people. They are ninjas who protected Grandpa."

He stared at us blankly for a moment before saying, "Mom, they are going to die."

Naruto went on a rampage.

Inari continued, "There's no way you can win against Gatou."

Naruto rampaged again about becoming Hokage and being a hero and all that stuff I had to hear every day… Inari replied rudely, "What are you, stupid? There's no such thing as a hero."

More yelling… then, "If you don't want to die, you should leave." Then he left, (finally), and went to his room to look at the ocean.

Naruto got up and left and a little while later I did the same. I found Inari's room and heard… crying…? I let myself in and shut the door behind me. Inari turned around and glared at me with teary eyes.

"_Ya know…"_ I said, _"Naruto is different from us. He was bullied and everyone hated him but he kept a smile on his face and did his best to be accepted. Naruto didn't mean to be harsh but I think it's hard for him to see someone on the verge of giving up. That's what made him angry. I, too, was looked down upon but I have been working hard to overcome those who are disrespectful towards me. I don't know what happened with you and your family but giving up won't solve anything. Also, give Naruto and the rest of us some credit. We're more capable than we might seem."_ I don't know why I said it but it was like before… one of those moments when I realize something and act upon it.

Suddenly, Inari poured out the whole story too me about how his dad saved him and stood up for what was right but was killed for it.

After he was done, I sighed and replied, _"Inari, people die because of their righteous beliefs but in my opinion, that is the most valiant kind of death. I'd rather die fighting for what's right that die not fighting at all."_


	6. Realization

Sorry for the wait. I'd appreciate more constructive criticism.

We were out in a forest near Tazuna's house where Kakashi-sensei was beginning our training session. He had mentioned something about chakra and to my utter dismay Naruto had no idea as to what that was.

My immediate response was, _"Are you stupid? Seriously, how on earth do you make shadow clones if you don't even know what chakra is? Surly you're aware of the very energy that keeps you alive!"_

Naruto laughed nervously and I face-palmed.

I'm lazy in school but that's because I was raised with all that information burned into me as a child. Starting a few months after I turned five ( it was a year after receiving the curse mark) Neji worked me hard. He's only a year older than me but we still trained every day to become strong, despite the fact that there was a slim chance that power would 'change our fates.' I went through daily sessions and read all the books I could get my hands onto. I knew more than your average twelve year old, so naturally school was just a recap of all the information that I already knew. Despite this, I still can't believe that a ninja could graduate without even knowing what chakra, the most important aspect of being a ninja, is. I guess people like that have just become one of my pet-peeves…

Sakura, who was also shocked at Naruto's idiocy, yelled at him and went into a full-blown explanation about chakra and after all that, he still didn't get it…

Basically, Kakashi explained that we needed to not only be able to use chakra but also be able to control it. This also was a skill that came naturally to me. Being a Byakugan user means that I need to be able to focus my chakra into my fingers so I can deal blows to the vital chakra points of my enemy. Chakra points run through the entire body and when powerful and unfamiliar chakra is forcefully pumped into someone's body, the point will either temporarily shut down or burst. The latter is more fatal but harder for a Byakugan user to accomplish.

Kakashi told us to concentrate chakra into our feet and try climbing a tree without using our hands. We all picked a tree and gathered chakra to the soles of our feet. Once we were all ready, we ran at a tree. I quickly ran to the very top of my tree and stood there balanced on one of the highest branches. I watched the others; Naruto barely made it three feet, Sasuke did a little better but used too much chakra and was repelled, Sakura on the other hand, was sitting on a high branch a little lower than mine.

"This is easy!" Sakura called and stuck her tongue out at the boys.

Naruto cheered for her then asked, "Wait, where's Hotaru-chan?"

"_Up here,"_ I called, "_I learned this ages ago."_ They stared, gaping at me. Even Sasuke seemed impressed but Sakura's stare quickly turned into a glare. I smirked.

"It looks like the girls are best at controlling chakra. Right now, Hotaru is closest to being Hokage… unlike a certain someone…" Kakashi-sensei said, looking at Naruto. He turned to Sasuke and remarked "I guess the Uchiha clan isn't worth much either…" Naruto clenched his teeth and went at it again, quickly followed by Sasuke.

I left and found a good sized clearing surrounded by trees. I didn't practice Ninjutsu too often because I'm best with my Byakugan but I have a few jutsus up my sleeve. Of course I can already use the summoning jutsu, because of my violin, but I also know some earth style jutsus as well. I made a clone then a few quick hand signs and murmured, _"Doton: Ganchuusou!"_ A six foot radius of earth spikes shot up from the ground and stabbed the clone making it disappear in a cloud of smoke. I was satisfied with the quality of this jutsu. It was C ranked but effective and it wasn't difficult.

I made a few more hand signs then said, _"Doton: Dochu Eigyo no Jutsu!"_ and poofed away. When the smoke cleared I was a good ways underground in a cavern with several tunnels leading upwards in different directions. This was also a C ranked earth jutsu. It allowed me to hide in the protection of the earth but with the tunnels leading upward I could also attack stealthily.

Those were the two earth jutsus I could currently use. I am also working on a few others but they are ranked higher, so I am not very good at them.

When I use my Byakugan I can perform the '8 Trigrams Heavenly Sky' technique which is just pushing chakra from all my chakra points and spinning, creating a protective dome. The only difference it has from the normal rotation technique is that I also focus the chakra to make it jagged so that anyone who comes within the radius of the dome will get all cut up.

I have also mastered the '8 Trigrams 64 Strikes' which shuts down 64 of the 361 chakra points. It immobilizes my enemy for only a certain amount of time but can still be fatal. I am rather proud of this, to be honest. It's a technique that takes time to master and when it is accomplished, usually the user is from the main branch.

I practiced until dark then headed back to the house.

Suddenly, I fell to the ground onto my side. I clutched my head in pain and curled up into a ridged ball. _'Shit, it's happening… thank god no one is around…'_ My body shook uncontrollably and it felt like I was being stabbed everywhere with thousands of senbon needles.

As my body convulsed in a fit of spasms, my mind whirled into that dark room… That terrifying room… I spent two years of my young life in that room… isolated. It was right after Orochimaru captured me. They put me in a dark crimson colored room. They experimented on me to make sure I hadn't been turned into some sort of monster… to make sure I wasn't a threat… it was even worse because I am of the side branch… if I was in the main branch they wouldn't treat me so harshly… the Hokage didn't know… they put me through all sorts of horrid tests… They played mind games with me… so confusing… so painful… I didn't know who 'they' were, just that they came from the main branch… and that for a year and three months this went on… and during my nine months of recovery, I was still in that room… of course back then I had lost track of time and only discovered this after I was released…

Finally, the images subsided and the pain ebbed. I took in deep, shaking breaths. After lying there for a few minutes, I stumbled to my feet. When I got back to the house I slipped in unnoticed and collapsed on my mattress, falling into an exhausted sleep.

Then next morning, I was still tired but managed to act the same as always. I've had seizures periodically ever since being released from my imprisonment but no one knows about them except Neji.

Sakura and I went to the bridge to make sure Tazuna was protected. It kind of pissed me off how some guys were complaining about how if they keep building the bridge, they might get killed. As we headed back, a small child approached Sakura and I. He smiled and held out his hands. Sakura sighed and gave him some candy and I tossed him an apple. He laughed happily and scampered away. 'What's with this place…?' I thought to myself, 'They must be having some serious trouble…' Tazuna went on to explain that everyone was losing hope and that if the bridge wasn't completed soon, then things were only going to get worse.

Dinner that night was disgusting… I mean the food wasn't but Naruto and Sasuke were even competing at eating…and that just resulted in both of them throwing up. _"Geez, you guys are nasty."_ I grumbled.

"No, I must eat." Sasuke said, wiping his mouth.

"Yeah, we have to no matter what because we have to become stronger." Naruto declared.

"_You're just going to make yourself sick and then you'll have no chance of becoming stronger until you get better and that could take a while. Just stop… it's unhealthy…"_ I requested. Thankfully they obliged.

A little later Sakura asked about a picture on the wall and I was dismayed to find that Inari looked pale. I remembered what he had told me before… all about his dad. When Tazuna began explaining Inari got up and left. I guess it's still a sensitive topic for him. I too, excused myself saying, _"I already heard the story from Inari. I'll go check on him."_ Tazuna and Tsunami seemed surprised that Inari had told me everything but I ignored it and left.

I walked up to Inari's room and found the door slightly open. I leaned against the wall and said, without entering, _"Remember what you told me Inari. Remember how your dad said to protect things that are precious to you with everything you have. You're dad wasn't lying when he told you he would love the village with everything he had. Don't let him down Inari because even if he's gone, you're still here and you can make a difference. Also remember what I told you. Don't fear death. It's better to die fighting than die without trying. Don't let people who are evil get to your head. By saying there is no hope left is like telling them that they are right and that their evilness is more powerful than anything. Don't think like that."_ After that, I walked away.

That evening when Inari reappeared he clung to me like a leech… Me and my attempt at compassion got me stuck with this kid… I sighed and thought, 'Seriously, I'm just going off of what I've believed for years. To achieve my goals, I've set that kind of thinking in my mind. I hadn't intended for my mind-set to change other people. It was just a method for me to keep working. Gaining respect is what I ultimately want and the only way the Hyūga main branch will acknowledge me is through power. I guess that's kind of ambitious and even if I do gain power, they'll just end up trying to use me for their own purposes. Thus, I have come up with a way to make them understand the pain I've felt and that is to grow strong so I can inflict pain upon them with my own hands. That may sound cruel but then again, isn't that what Uchiha Sasuke is aiming to accomplish? We both understand suffering and so we both wish to take revenge.'

It was at that particular moment of realization that an overwhelming sense of understanding washed over me; like before when I realized that I accepted the people around me as friends, except this was stronger. Uchiha Sasuke and I share something that hardly anyone else has ever felt. Everyone he loved was torn away from his life and I was tortured only to be thrown back into poverty.

Even Neji doesn't fully understand me. He wasn't tortured like me. He even accepted our way of life, or as he calls it; 'our unchangeable fate,' which I find rather ridiculous.

'Maybe my mind being so twisted with conflicting emotions is the result of my past, but even so… there is someone else who understands suffering… and for the first time… I'm not alone…'


	7. Promise

**This chapter I found slightly difficult to write… as in, capturing Hotaru's and Sasuke's feelings while keeping them both in character was a bit of a challenge. Also I'm skipping ahead to the day of the battle with Zabuza and Haku.**

Obviously Sasuke didn't have any idea of the suffering that I went through, but right now that isn't my concern. The time would come when all would be revealed and then Sasuke would realize that together, we could assist with each other's ambitions.

Sasuke is the only one I've met who is capable of properly understanding me. He's is strong. He's attractive. He's certainly not an obnoxious idiot like many of my other classmates.

Perhaps I'm acting like all his annoying, hyper-active fan-girls but I don't believe that is the case. Those girls only like him because he's hot and because he's the strong/silent type. However, they don't take into account the fact that he strives to follow the bloody path of revenge, as do I.

Sasuke would never confide in any of them for assistance, or rather, he doesn't want anything to do with other people because they would burden him. He proved that during Kakashi's training exercise. I, on the other hand, am just as strong as, perhaps even stronger than Sasuke. No doubt that when the time comes Sasuke will gather several skilled shinobi for his own purposes and when he does, I will be an even greater asset. Like I said before though, now is not the time….

The sight before us was atrocious. All the bridge builders lay bloody and wounded across the bridge. Just as I activated my Byakugan, that troublesome mist formed around us. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail.

Zabuza's voice echoed, "Long time no see Kakashi. I see you're still with those brats. He's shaking again, poor kid." I glanced at Sasuke and he was, indeed, trembling, but this time, he seemed different.

Zabuza's clones appeared and surrounded us as Sasuke smirked and said, "I'm shaking from excitement!"

"Do it, Sasuke." Kakashi gave permission.

Sasuke shot out, attacking the clones and within a second, the only thing surrounding us was a ring of water.

Zabuza and the masked boy appeared and Zabuza said, "A rival has appeared, eh Haku?" Haku nodded.

"_That confirms our suspicions."_ I muttered and Kakashi made an agreeing remark.

"I'll fight him. Tricking us with that stupid act; I hate bastards like that." Sasuke growled.

"_Fine,"_ I said making sure everyone could hear, then I said to Zabuza, _"Make some more clones, will you? I don't intend to be left out of the fun."_ Zabuza acknowledged my request just as Sasuke and Haku ran at each other.

"You idiot," Sakura screamed, "You're not supposed to encourage the enemy!"

I just grinned and spun around, quickly weaving my way through the clones, using my Byakugan to strike them down. The clones were gone very fast and Zabuza instantly made more. I paid little attention to Sasuke's match but my Byakugan allowed me to see him anyways and from what I could tell, both Zabuza and Haku were shocked that he could keep up. Apparently they have been underestimating us. I couldn't hold back a smirk when Haku preformed a jutsu but Sasuke pumped chakra into his legs and disappeared, gaining the upper hand.

Kakashi-sensei smiled and said, "I can't have you underestimating my team by calling them brats. Sasuke is the Leaf Village's #1 rookie. Hotaru is a very close second, being skilled with the Byakugan. Sakura is the brightest of the group with a sharp mind. The last is the show-off, hyper-active, #1 loudest ninja in the village, Uzumaki Naruto."

By now all the clones were gone and Zabuza began to doubt whether or not they'd make it out alive. As he did, the air began to chill and the temperature dropped several degrees. Haku made a hand sign and what looked like huge blocks of ice mirrors, surged up from the ground and surrounded Sasuke in a dome shape. Haku literally stepped into one of the mirrors and appeared in all of them. I stared; eyes narrowed and mouth slightly agape, much like everyone else's expression. None of us knew what this jutsu was. Kakashi made a move towards Sasuke but Zabuza intervened.

Suddenly, all of the Hakus drew out senbon needles and threw them. Hundreds of needles shot out piercing and scratching Sasuke's body. I cursed silently and ran to the mirrors slipping between two of them when the rain of needles stopped.

"What are you doing!" Sasuke yelled at me, "You could have had the advantage outside!"

I raised an eyebrow and said, _"You don't know all of my jutsus, Sasuke. I've got one that could save you quite a bit of blood. Besides, I'm here now. You might as well cooperate."_

He scowled but muttered, "What do you have in mind?"

"_I have a defense jutsu but you need to stay down and close to me. Otherwise you'll just end up injured even more."_

He looked skeptical but nodded and crouched down close at my side. Just as another storm of senbon needles came at us, I spun on my toes, spread out my arms and pumped chakra out from all of my chakra points. "8 Trigrams Heavenly Sky!" My ultimate defense created a chakra dome around me and Sasuke. All the needles were deflected.

Sasuke looked up triumphantly as Haku gasped, "How—what was that?"

"_Weren't you listening? I'm a skilled Byakugan user. You're not the only one with a kekkei genkai. It's unfortunate though that I cannot tell which one of you is real. This stupid mist makes that rather difficult. However, you're needles won't affect us as long as I have chakra left."_ Another hail of needles rained down but my jutsu deflected them again.

Sakura seemed to be frightened and tried to reach the dome of mirrors. She threw a kunai but Haku appeared out of the mirrors and deflected it. A shuriken flew out of nowhere and Haku tried to doge that too but it still scratched his mask, and he fell to the ground. There was a large amount of smoke and once it cleared we sighed in relief.

"Uzumaki Naruto has finally arrived!" Naruto announced, "Now that I'm here everything will be fine! The main character of a story usually shows up in these types of situations and instantly kicks the enemy's ass!"

I think all of us mentally face-palmed….

A moment later, Zabuza threw a bunch of shuriken at Naruto but Haku threw needles and deflected them. We all looked at him quizzically.

"Haku, what is this?" hissed Zabuza.

"Zabuza-san, these kids… please let me fight them my way." Haku replied

Zabuza scoffed, "So you don't want me to interfere, Haku? You're as soft as always." I realized he was right. He was using needles to attack but he wasn't aiming at any vital areas.

"As long as Naruto stays and attacks outside…" mumbled Sasuke, unfortunately a little too late.

Naruto was sitting behind us and said with a salute, "Hey, I came to save you guys!"

"**You total moron!"** Sasuke and I yelled in unison and Sasuke continued to blow up at Naruto's stupidity. When they were finally done arguing, Sasuke tried his fireball jutsu but apparently that didn't work on Haku's mirrors. I knew that I could get out of here with my earth Dochu Eigyo no Jutsu and use the underground tunnels but I can't bring the others with me and I needed to be here so I could perform my rotation technique.

After a few more rounds, I was getting tired. _"Guys, I can only do this two more times. We need to find the real one fast or we're going to have to go without my jutsu"_

They nodded. We all observed Haku but even after the next two attacks, nothing was revealed. I cursed as the hundreds of needles flew at us. I braced myself as I was pierced and blood spurted out of my body. We lay on the ground panting when Naruto stumbled to his feet and used his Kage Bunshin no jutsu. He attacked the mirrors but that too, only got him even more cut up.

"This jutsu uses the mirrors reflection to transport me. From my point of view, you seem to be moving in slow motion," explained Haku.

Kakashi was explaining something to Sakura as Naruto confidently declared that he still had stuff to do in his life so he can't die here. I think that's the same for all of us though.

As I listened to Haku's testimony about having someone precious to protect, I wondered if I would ever be in that position…

Kakashi started spewing nonsense about how we were too soft to kill Haku. I clenched my teeth; I wasn't going to let this be the end. There's just no way in all of hell that I was going to die here.

Zabuza and Kakashi began battling it out but the three of us inside the mirrors were preoccupied. I racked my brain trying to come up with a plan. My Byakugan can see chakra but not anticipate moves… only Sharingan can do that…

After the next attack I glanced at Sasuke and my adrenaline pumped up. Sasuke had Sharingan! Haku seemed shocked but I felt renewed and slightly amazed that right after I thought of the Sharingan, Sasuke obtained it.

Haku made a move, but not at Sasuke. He was aiming at Naruto. Sasuke swore and leapt in front of Naruto to block the attack. _'No way!'_ I thought.

Naruto seemed grateful at first but then he murmured, "Sasuke… you… Why?" with a horrified look on his face.

"Pfft… I hated you…" Sasuke hissed.

"But… but, why? Why me? I never asked for your help!"

Blood bubbled and spilled out from Sasuke's lips as he said, "I don't know… my body just moved on its own… idiot…"

He stumbled and I rushed over, catching him before he hit the ground, "_Sasuke! Oi, Sasuke! You over did it. Hey… don't die! You can't die! You need to fulfill your ambition, remember?"_ I yelled.

"That man…" Sasuke mumbled. He tugged on my hair, which fell loose, and pulled me closer so I could hear him. "I told myself I wouldn't die until I killed him… Hotaru, you're different from the others… If I die here… please kill…" his voice turned to a whisper and I strained to hear him, "Uchiha…Itachi… for me…"

My eyes widened a fraction but I nodded and, taking in a shaky breath, whispered back, _"I will, I swear it. I'll do it even if it costs me my life." _

A small smirk formed on his lips, "Good…I'm counting… on you…." His eyes closed and his breathing slowed.

Naruto didn't deem to have heard the exchange between Sasuke and I. He slowly rose to his feet with his head down as Haku said something about respect. I wasn't really listening. I was far more focused on the body I held in my arms and the promise I had just made. Anger built up inside me like a raging tornado. I placed Sasuke's cold body on the ground and rose to my feet to stand next to Naruto.

I glared furiously at Haku and growled, _"You are __**seriously**__ going to pay!" _


	8. Meetings

Ok, so I've wanted to write the latter part of this chapter for ages! Lol

Naruto's chakra turned scarlet and swirled around him vigorously. It seemed to be in the shape of a fox. His wounds healed and his nails and teeth grew. His hair fluffed up and his eyes were a menacing scarlet hue.

'_What the hell… is he?'_ was a thought in the back of my mind. I wasn't focusing too hard on that, but rather the fact that Sasuke was dead and had entrusted his will to me. I was also thinking of a way to kill this bastard Haku.

I was no longer tired; my adrenaline was rushing and my chakra built up.

Naruto charged on all fours at one of the mirrors. Haku fired some needles but Naruto's chakra deflected them and he punched a mirror, shattering it.

My byakugan was activated and I noticed Haku was outside the mirrors. He made a move towards the next one but I rushed forward, grabbed his leg and punched him hard in the gut. He flew backwards.

Naruto followed up and kicked him in the back but before Haku could go flying again, he grabbed the collar of Haku's shirt and punched him in the face with an extreme force. Haku's mask cracked as he flew backwards and smashed through another mirror and flipped over the ground.

A cloud of dust flew up but I located the masked boy with my Byakugan and murmured in a low growl, _"Doton: Ganchuusou!"_ Earth spikes shot up from the ground and three of them hoisted Haku painfully into the air. I sprinted over and jumped up, level with Haku's beat up body. I concentrated chakra into my palm and thrust it down on the boy's upper abdominal. He shot back down and slammed into the ground with force enough to create a crater.

Naruto leapt at Haku as the smoke cleared. The mask had fallen off completely and the boy's face was actually quite beautiful; almost feminine. However, he was bruised and blood oozed from his bleeding lip, splashed, and tainted the cement bridge. Naruto lunged in for another punch but at the last moment, he stopped; his fist trembling, inches from Haku's blank face.

I stood a just out of ear-shot, and out of breath with my hands on my knees as Haku said something.

Naruto growled and lashed out, sending Haku skidding across the bridge again. He coughed up more blood and wiped his mouth. I could hear them now and Haku was taunting us.

"What happened to your intensity? You can't kill me with that… There are people who make this mistake… not killing their enemy because of pity… letting them leave with just their lives. Not having a dream… not being needed by anyone… the pain of simply living."

"What are you trying to say?" growled Naruto.

"Zabuza has no need for a weak shinobi… You have taken away my reason for existing."

"Why for a guy like that? He's a bad guy who takes money from a criminal! Is that eye-brow-less freak the only important person to you?"

Haku went on to explain that back when he was young, he had loving parents. Later everything fell apart when it was discovered that he and his mother had a Kekkei Genkai and that his father killed his mother and attempted to do the same to him. However, as it turns out, Haku ended up killing his own father. He said he was unwanted, unneeded… Zabuza was the only one who accepted him…who needed him and because of that, Zabuza became the most important person in Haku's life.

I soaked this all in and knew that I too, used to be unneeded. All my clan ever wanted was to make sure I wasn't a threat but also make sure I was strong enough to be used as protection. They are selfish and have given me no freedom. The curse mark on my forehead is proof… That changed today. Up until now, I have been searching for a way to free myself; a way to prove myself but now I have a new mission. Sasuke said he needed me to fulfill his wishes, no, his necessary ambitions. It needs to be accomplished and I'm the one fit to do it. Perhaps I am overthinking things but if Sasuke was still alive, he would still need me to back him up just in case something such as this very situation should occur.

I came out from my thoughts when Haku said, "…Kill me." Naruto hesitated. "Please hurry and kill me. Why are you hesitating?"

My ears where ringing and Naruto yelled something that Haku responded calmly to. I couldn't take it. I clenched my teeth and whipped out two Kunais and charged at Haku, zooming past Naruto. Naruto's baffled stare bore into my back but I sprinted forward ready to strike. I was only a foot away when Haku slid to the side and used my momentum to flip me over onto my back. I landed with a hard thud and groaned mentally.

"Sorry, I can't die yet." The boy muttered, making a seal. He disappeared and I let out my breath in a hiss of anger.

I stumbled slowly over to Sasuke's corpse and sunk to my knees. My body ached, I was worn out and my ears were still ringing and my Byakugan had deactivated. All the adrenaline I had built up disappeared and crashed down on me in a wave of exhaustion. I didn't bother to check what was going on with Kakashi and Zabuza. It wasn't long before I passed out; my head thumped onto Sasuke's cold chest, just avoiding a few needles.

A short time later, I awoke to find that I had been shoved off Sasuke and replaced with a sobbing Sakura. When I looked at Sasuke, his eyes fluttered open and he tried to prop himself up into a sitting position. He mumbled something almost inaudible to Sakura and started getting up.

I moaned silently, still aching and also sat up. When Sasuke noticed me, our eyes locked. "Hotaru…" he murmured and offered me a hand which I gladly accepted. Even in the state he was in, he managed to pull me up. We wrapped our arms around each other's shoulders for support. I stumbled but he placed his other hand on my stomach to steady me.

"_God, it hurts!"_ I hissed.

Then I realized Sakura looking at me with a glare that was somewhere between jealousy and sadness.

Naruto glanced over at us and Sasuke just nodded. Naruto looked like he was going to cry.

Then a huge group of nasty looking ex-shinobi, who I hadn't noticed until now, yelled at us. I swore as they ran towards us.

Suddenly an arrow flew from behind us and all the villagers, led by Inari, screamed, "If you come any further onto this island… the citizens of this country will stop you with everything we've got!"

Kakashi and Naruto made a bunch of shadow clones; the ex-shinobi yelled in alarm and fled.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Zabuza whispered something to Kakashi and he moved Zabuza so he could be next to Haku. It began to snow and an unnoticed tear slid down Haku's cheek.

All that went down afterwards was that we had a mini funeral for Zabuza and Haku, we all got patched up and healed as best we could for the time being. As we were leaving, Naruto and Inari cried their eyes out. We later learned that the bridge was named, "The Great Naruto Bridge" for obvious reasons.

It was a few weeks after the Mist village mission and squad 7 was good as new... except for the major fact that Naruto and Sasuke are either ignoring each other or screaming at each other every five minutes.

Despite all this, Sasuke and I had actually become closer. Don't get me wrong though; what I mean is that we have been training and talking together rather frequently.

We trained to further test each other's skills. Sasuke is undoubtedly strong. His Taijutsu combined with Sharingan is incredible and he has several decent jutsus up his sleeve. I'm pretty sure he thinks similarly of my skills.

Because Sasuke had confided in me at a time when he thought he was going to die, I was the only one who knew the details of his intentions and therefore was designated to be the one to help him accomplish it. Sasuke hadn't told anyone the extent of his goals until the moment he told me. The reason he told me was because, like he said, I'm different. Whether or not Sasuke and I have just become another Zabuza and Haku doesn't matter. I don't really care if I'm being used as a tool, because I have finally been accepted. It is just like Haku's situation now that I think about it and I almost feel bad for trying to kill him.

Because Sasuke had told me his ambition, I told him mine. I told him everything save the fact that I sometimes have seizures. He'd probably figure that out later anyway.

The relationship between Sasuke and I is, in no way, intimate. Rather, we carry the secrets of each other's lives and ambitions and that in itself was enough to form a bond of trust between us.

We had just returned from a bunch of stupid missions that included pulling weeds and walking dogs; it was absolutely nothing compared to our previous experience.

Right now Sakura was asking Sasuke out on a date and Sasuke was declining and explaining that she was even lower than Naruto. A little harsh, but that's how Sasuke is.

"Let's go Hotaru, we have training to do." Sasuke said unemotionally.

As I walked beside Sasuke, I gave a short wave to Naruto and Sakura, who were glaring daggers at me. If looks could kill (with the exception of certain levels of Sharingan) I'd have been dead several times over.

As we were walking back, I felt a strange and powerful Chakra. _"Sasuke…"_

"I know, let's head back but we'll go this way." He nodded to the trees that surrounded the village. We hopped up onto the tree branches and traveled that way. I activated my Byakugan and detected three unfamiliar chakras, one of which was fainter but had an incredibly hateful pallor to it.

When we got closer, I broke away and curved outward and came back a longer rout to remain undetected. I deactivated my Byakugan and suppressed my chakra as much as possible. I stood up high in a tree and watched Naruto, and a strange boy, arguing. The boy was wearing weird purple make-up and a cat-like hood. On his back was something wrapped in bandages.

The girl, standing next to the boy, was wearing an off shoulder tunic style dress and had four pig-tails arranging her blond hair. Eventually I noticed another chakra. A red-haired boy stood up-side-down on a tree branch. It seemed that I was the only one who noticed._ 'How could they not notice the huge amount of angry and lonely chakra built up inside him?'_ I thought.

I disappeared and reappeared at his side, also up-side-down, using a small amount of chakra to keep me there. The red haired boy didn't notice. He stood calmly glaring down at the scene playing out before him. I sneered. _'This kid thinks he's so cool but he still had no idea I'm here.'_ For some reason I found this incredibly amusing and decided to make him aware of my presence. I reached out and tugged lightly on his sleeve. His head snapped toward me and for a moment he looked shocked. He quickly tried to conceal it but it had defiantly been there. I grinned mischievously, which I hardly ever do, and felt quite triumphant.

I disappeared again and reappeared next to Sasuke. I smirked as Sasuke threw a sharp stone at the cat-hooded boy's head and the attention was drawn to us.

"_You haven't noticed him yet? I think I ticked him off a bit… I noticed him but he didn't notice me" _I said to Sasuke and nodded in the red-head's direction. Sasuke's eye's widened for a moment then narrowed.

Just as the boy with make-up was about to unwrap the thing in bandages, the read-haired boy said, without any emotion, "Kankuro, stop it. You're an embarrassment to our village."

"Ga-Gaara…" Kankuro stuttered.

"Losing yourself in a fight, how pathetic… Why do you thing we came to the Leaf Village?"

"Listen, Gaara, they started it and—"

Gaara glared, "Shut up… I'll kill you." Kankuro and the girl repeatedly apologized to Gaara. The read-haired boy turned to us and said, "Sorry to you guys," not sounding all too apologetic.

As they were leaving Sakura called out to them and they mockingly explained that they were here for the chuunin exams.

They began walking away but Sasuke called out, "Hey, what's your name?"

The girl blushed and pointed to herself, "Huh, you mean me?"

"No, the one with the gourd."

Gaara turned and said, "Gaara of the Sand…I'm also interested in your name?"

"It's Uchiha Sasuke." He smirked.

Gaara turned to me, "…and yours?"

"_Hyūga Hotaru."_ Gaara's eyes narrowed further.

We all stared at each other for a few moments when the girl broke the silence, "Hey! Aren't you going to answer him! It's rude to ignore people when they are talking to you!" She pointed at me.

"_Hey Sasuke, you tell her. I can't cuz' I don't know her name." _I muttered with a sigh.

"Hotaru is mute but speaks through telepathy. Unless she knows your name, she is unable to use telepathy as well. She knows his," he nodded at Gaara, "but not yours." He said in a monotone voice.

They looked a bit stunned (except Gaara).

"Well, my name is Te—" She started but Naruto interrupted.

"Hey! What about me, Huh!"

"Not interested," muttered Gaara, "let's go." They turned and continued walking towards the village.

"Us too," Sasuke said to me, and we jumped away.


	9. Exams

I'd like to thank Daytime Television for kindly reviewing my story. ^_^

As it turned out, Kakashi enrolled us in the Chuunin exams. Yesterday he gave us the applications and now the four of us are headed to room 301.

When we approached, some sort of squabble seemed to be occurring. It was pointless if you ask me, seeing that the surroundings were Genjutsu, though we were the only ones who noticed.

"You will let me pass," Sneered Sasuke, and also remove these surroundings created with Genjutsu."

"So you noticed…" one of the guys blocking the door said.

"Sakura, you must have noticed first, right? Your Genjutsu know-how has improved the most on our team."

Sakura blushed and after a moments shock said, "Of course I noticed a while ago…because this is the second floor."

'_Sasuke's trying to make the team look good and give us confidence…'_ I thought to myself.

One of the boys blocking the door grinned and shot forward for a round-house kick, saying, "Hmm, not bad…but all you did was see through it!"

Sasuke made a move to counter the kick but at that moment, a green blur sped forward and blocked both attacks. It was Rock Lee. Lee turned to me and said, "Greetings Hotaru-chan! I see this is your team?" And without waiting for an answer and ignoring the confused glances from my team, he turned to Sakura and flat out confessed his love for her….which was rejected. No surprise really.

After that heart-felt exchange (note sarcasm), Neji-Onii-san walked up to Sasuke and after giving me a nod in greeting, he asked, "Hey you, what's your name?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at me but said, "When you want to know someone's name, you should give yours first."

"You're a rookie right? You're probably the same age as Hotaru then…"

Sasuke paused and gave me the **'you have some explaining to do'** look and said, "I don't have to answer you."

They glared at each other for a moment before turning away. I looked at Neji and said to him, _"He's Uchiha Sasuke, you know, the one I've been training with."_ He nodded then I said, so my team and Neji could hear, _"See you Onii-san. Good luck and don't get killed."_

Neji smirked.

Naruto freaked, "He's your brother!"

Sakura looked suspicious but Sasuke mumbled "…So that's why they knew you…"

I grinned.

We were headed to the third floor when Lee intercepted us and challenged Sasuke to a duel. Despite the fact that I warned Sasuke that Lee was an incredible Taijutsu user, Naruto still got his butt whipped and Sasuke **almost** got his butt whipped.

Thanks to Gai-sensei's intervening… no one got majorly injured. After being mentally scarred by Lee and Gai-sensei's actions, Lee said to us, "The truth is, I came here to test my abilities. I lied before. Most likely, the strongest Leaf Genin is on my team. I've entered this to defeat him…and you're also one of my targets. Be prepared during the exam!"

Sasuke scowled and asked me, "Is that true? Is your brother really that strong?"

"_Yeah, probably. He's stronger than I am and he's considerably stronger than Lee. Fortunately I know how to counter him because we use the same technique…but you guys…well, good luck with that."_ I stated bluntly and walked up the stairs wearing a smug look.

When we reached the room, Kakashi-sensei was there to greet us. He gave us some 'words of advice' and wished us good luck.

We entered the meeting room…it was shockingly packed…. Apparently this year's exam had the largest crowd that it had had in a long time.

Naruto and Sakura expressed their shock while Sasuke and I stared in awe. A few seconds later Ino sprang upon Sasuke in an attack hug which of course led to her and Sakura arguing. Shikamaru and Akimichi Couji, who I sort of knew from hanging around Shikamaru, followed Ino at a lazier pace. Then Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino and Hinata approached too.

"H-hello," Hinata stuttered, her eyes flickered to my glare and she hid further behind Kiba. Conversation broke out about us being the ten rookies and how none of us were going to fail.

Eventually another boy, a little older than us approached, "Hey you guys, you should be more quiet. You guys are rookies just out of the academy right? Screaming like school girls…geez… this isn't a picnic." He scowled.

"Who do you think you are?" Ino insisted.

"I'm Kabuto. But instead of that, look behind you."

We did and found several dozen pairs of eyes glaring daggers in our direction... so much for lying low… Kabuto continued, "Some of those guys are from the Hidden Rain, they have short tempers. Everyone is nervous about the exam. Quiet down before you cause a scene." He sighed, "Well, I can't blame you. You're clueless rookies. You remind me of how I used to be."

"Kabuto-san, right? So this is your second time taking the exam?" questioned Sakura.

"Nope… my seventh time. This exam is held twice a year so this is my fourth year."

"Wow, so you know a lot about the exam."

"That's right."

"Wow, impressive…" added Naruto.

"_Not if he's failed every time…"_ I muttered.

Kabuto pulled out some orange cards, "Heh heh, I'll share some info with you cute rookies with these nin-info cards…"

Kabuto explained his info cards then Sasuke stepped up asking if they could show information about people, they could, and then asked Kabuto to show Gaara and Rock Lee's cards. I listened intently. Basically everything about Lee I already knew but I was curious about this Gaara character. Gaara's information is as follows: Mission history: C rank- 8 and B rank- 1 and apparently he returned from every mission without a scratch…. We've got quite a formidable batch this year.

Then Naruto did the unthinkable… he grinned and yelled, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I won't lose to you bastards! You got that?"

'_Shiiiiiiit_…' I thought to myself, face-palming as the other contestants glared death sentences in our direction…. Sakura went off on an angry rampage at Naruto.

Suddenly, I felt a brush of air pass by me. Instinctively, I activated my Byakugan. A wave of super-fast chakra was headed straight towards Kabuto-san. I opened my mouth to warn him but didn't get there quick enough. They attacked with kunai first and another quickly swiped a punch, which Kabuto seemed to have dodged… I saw the chakra waves travel through the air and forcefully hit Kabuto but he didn't seem to notice until his glasses broke and he barfed all over the floor… _'that was…sound?_'

Naruto and Sakura rushed over to assist him while the Sound Ninja made snide remarks. A murmur flooded through the room in confusion but before I could explain what I thought had happened, out exam instructor appeared.

Through the smoke, we heard, "Quiet down you worthless bastards! What is this!" A tough looking man with a squad of shinobi appeared out of the smoke. The man continued, "Thanks for waiting… I am Ibiki Morino, the examiner for the chuunin selection exam's first test." He pointed to the creeps from the Hidden Sound, "Hidden sound guys, stop doing as you please before the exam. Do you want to fail already?"

The one covered in bandages replied, "I apologize… this is our first time… we got a bit carried away…."

Ibiki-san snarled, "Bah… Here's a good opportunity to say this… There will be no fighting without permission of the examiner. Even if permission is granted, killing your opponent will not be tolerated. Those pigs that disobey me will be failed immediately. Do I make myself clear?" Several of the rookies were breaking out in a cold sweat as Ibiki declared, "We will now start the first test in the chuunin exam."

He explained to us all the rules and regulations about the point score and the cheating conditions. I wasn't worried about anyone except Naruto… he fails most written tests…or any tests for that matter. If he fails, we all fail… I sighed.

The test was passed out and we were told to begin.

I scanned the questions… most were very difficult and I knew maybe a little less than half of them. The others seemed almost impossible to understand without the answers in place. I answered the ones I knew and then focused on the others… I was completely helpless with those… I thought about what Ibiki said and realized… he had said, "**Those pathetic ones that get caught cheating will be destroying themselves…"** not, "Don't cheat" or "If you cheat, you'll fail". He said it as if we were actually going to cheat.

**That was it**; we had to cheat in order to get full points, otherwise we wouldn't get full points. I leaned forward a bit and my hair fell over either side of my face, blocking my eyes from the inspectors on the side. Silently, I activated my Byakugan and scanned each person's test. I could tell who was at a loss and who was a bit more confident. I also noticed that other cheating had begun. Gaara, Neji, TenTen, Sasuke and more, were on a roll.

Eventually I found someone who wasn't cheating at all but was quickly writing down answers as if he knew them already… he finished the test and hadn't cheated once, not even a glance up at another person. I smirked, thinking, _'There are people here who know the answers…_ _whether or not they are taking the exam or were placed there, I have yet to find out…_' I looked at the top of his answer sheet, his name… I see. I saw his face with my Byakugan… _'Now to determine whether he's a fake or not…'_

"_Hello, what are you doing here?"_ I asked him.

He sat up, looking terrified and glanced around. I read his thoughts, _**"Wha- what is this?"**_

I refrained from a grin and continued_, "Answer the question or I'll kill you. Are you taking the exam or are you here for another purpose?"_ Of course, I was unable to kill him. That was a bluff but I might as well have added it to make sure he answered.

He gulped, thinking, _**"They put me here as a cheating target. I know all the answers…I'm not actually taking the exam…."**_

"_Excellent."_ I read off his answers with my Byakugan and copied them to my paper. By that time, people were being disqualified, left and right.

I was about to tell Naruto the answers I had gathered but Ibiki said, "Ok, and now… we will begin the tenth question."


	10. Action

The next chapter will be more exciting…

Everyone listened anxiously as Ibiki explained the rules to the tenth question. Basically, it was give up and come again, fail and remain failed, or succeed and go on. Ibiki told those who wanted to not take it to raise their hands. Several teams dismissed themselves… No way in hell was I going to give up.

I noticed Sakura starting to raise her hand but Naruto suddenly thrust his into the air.

I was in the middle of swearing excessively when Naruto yelled, "Don't underestimate me! I will not run!" He slammed his hand back onto the table. "I'll take it! Even if I'm a Genin forever…! I'll will myself to becoming Hokage anyway so I don't care! I am not afraid!" His eyes were filled with determination and pride.

Ibiki remained unfazed and said, "I'll ask again. Your life is riding on this decision; this is your last chance to quit."

Silence resumed until Naruto smirked and replied, "I follow my unbending words…that's my ninja way…!"

I sighed in relief; I suppose I underestimated his guts….

Ibiki continued, "Good decisions. Now, to everyone remaining… I congratulate you on passing the first test!" He grinned happily…which was kind of out of character compared to the way he treated us earlier.

My eyes widened along with everyone else's. Questions bubbled up from the lips of the remaining contestants and Ibiki explained that there never was a tenth question, or perhaps that was the tenth question. The written exam was just to test out information gathering skills because the main point was to cheat.

I leaned back in my chair thinking, _'Well, he got me there…'_

Things were beginning to quiet down when Ibiki took off his bandana/head protector and said, "Sometimes, information is more important than life… and on missions and the battlefield, people risk their lives to get their hands on it."

We stared at the horribly ugly burns and scars covering his head, wondering how he got them… Ibiki continued to explain the importance of gathering information and that the tenth question was important because it tests our guts and determination. He finished off saying, "Those who can't put their destinies on the line…who cling to the uncertain future of 'there's always next year'… and then walk away from their chance…those pieces of trash who can only make cowardly choices don't have the right to become a Chuunin; that's how I feel! Those who chose to take it answered the tough 10th question correctly. You will be able to survive and troubles you face in the future. You have made it through the entrance, the first test of the Chuunin selection exam is now over. I wish you guys luck."

Naruto cheered and a split second later someone wearing a billowing tan trench coat came crashing through a window. She threw a few kunai that attached a huge banner to the wall. She sneered and yelled, "You guys! This is no time to be celebrating! I am the examiner for the second test! Mitarashi Anko! Now let's go! Follow me!"

This examiner sort of reminded me of Naruto…all loud and excited…. *sigh*

Anko began complaining that there were so many of us left but the next test would cut us in half at the least…. She grinned mischievously.

We arrived at the stage for the next test, which happened to be Training Arena 44, aka, 'The Forest of Death'…

I wasn't really paying attention when Naruto started yelling and Anko threw a kunai at Naruto and began licking his blood, but then a creepy Genin with ominous chakra and an abnormally long tongue returned the kunai. I glared suspiciously at Anko and the freaky ninja, something didn't seem right; that ninja's chakra seemed faintly familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it….

Anko passed out a sheet of paper to everyone explaining that we needed to sign it so that any deaths that occur during this test aren't blamed on her…. She also explained that the objective of this test is to obtain both the 'earth' and 'heaven' scrolls. Each team is given one scroll and must defeat a team that has the scroll they need and then head straight to the watch tower. We have exactly five days to survive and complete the mission. All team mates must be healthy and intact, quitting is not an option, and we are not allowed to open the scrolls until we get to the tower.

As we were sent off to retrieve our scroll and go to our assigned gate, Anko said, "A final word of advice… don't die."

I rolled my eyes.

For thirty minutes, we stood anxiously at our gate, adrenaline pumping through our veins. My stomach clenched and I trembled with anticipation. Finally, the signal was given and we rushed through the gates.

A little ways in, we heard a distant scream. Sakura shivered and muttered, "Did you guys hear someone… scream? This place is creeping me out!"

"I'm telling you Sakura, it's no big deal," Naruto replied and turned towards a bush mumbling, "Uhh… I gotta take a leak…" I turned around, looking away, and Sakura flipped out and smacked Naruto.

Naruto went behind a bunch of trees. When he returned, I noticed his shuriken pouch was on the wrong leg and his scratch was gone… Sasuke noticed too and took the initiative to punch the fake Naruto and explain how incredibly suck-ish he was at disguise techniques.

In a cloud of smoke, the fake Naruto reviled himself. A man wearing goggles and a gas mask growled, "Since you've forced me to come clean, why don't you do the same? Which one of you has the scroll?" We leapt backwards cautiously and the man yelled angrily, "I'll just take it by force then!"

He charged at us and Sasuke jumped into the air, preforming a fire style technique that the enemy barely avoided. I ran behind the trees and found the real Naruto tied up and gagged. I tossed a kunai, freeing him from the bonds. I sped to catch up with Sasuke but swerved away when the enemy threw a kunai with an exploding tag. Sasuke narrowly avoided that one. The man appeared behind Sasuke but had to dodge Naruto's Kunai. I made a few hand seals and thought, _"Doton: Ganchuusou!"_ The spikes rose up and forced the masked man further back. Sasuke lunged forwards and stabbed him in the gut. After that episode, he retreated hastily.

We moved to a new area in case the man's team was nearby. We decided to come up with a code word so that something like that wouldn't happen again.

"_Sasuke, we're being watched" _I said.

He nodded and gave me the 'just go with it' face.

We decided on the poem, 'Ninja Opportunity' as our code word. It goes like this: "We thrive in the chaos of the enemy tide. Quiet shinobi don't need dens to hide. Our only concern is to watch and wait until the enemy lowers the gate."

I knew that Naruto would never remember it but we were being observed, so that was the point.

Sasuke took the scroll and just then, a strong wind burst into the clearing along with an excessive amount of strangely sharp leaves. It was too strong to be normal wind…I was sure it was a new enemies Ninjutsu.

Sasuke grabbed my wrist and waist and pulled me next to him under a large shrub. When the attack subsided, we emerged and Sakura ran up to us and recited the code. Naruto followed a few seconds later and also recited the poem… perfectly. Sasuke and I smirked and threw a few kunai at the fake, much to Sakura's confusion. I left it up to Sasuke to explain the strategy that he and I had established.

The enemy lifted the disguise and it turned out to be the creepy long-haired ninja from earlier….he (she?) lowered his hat and whispered, "I see… watch and wait eh? This is going to be more fun than I thought!" The ninja took out an earth scroll and extended his (her? let's just call him male) tongue, "I suppose you'd like to steal our earth scroll, wouldn't you…? …Since you already have a heaven scroll!" Then he wrapped his tongue around the scroll and, get this, freaking swallowed it whole! Our mouths dropped drastically as he snickered and hissed, "Now, shall we see just who will be stealing scrolls from whom?" He pulled down on his lower eyelid, revealing his blood-shot eye and rasped, "We'll fight to the death!"

A moment later, I saw a kunai come at me, but I was unable to move. I felt an excruciating pain in my forehead and hot, red liquid streamed down my face and into my eyes and mouth.

Then it was suddenly gone and I realized that he had cast some sort of Genjutsu that caused us to see our deaths. I activated my byakugan and pulsed chakra out from all my points at once, releasing the Genjutsu.

At the same time, Sasuke stabbed himself in the leg and grabbed Sakura, who was trembling and crying silently. We jumped away just as the enemy attempted to make the Genjutsu come true.

Sakura came to her senses and yelled but Sasuke slapped a hand over her mouth.

I turned away, leaned over a branch and threw up the remains of my lunch; it almost seemed like I could still feel the pain of what occurred during the illusion... I turned back around and swore silently, leaping away from the huge snake that had crept up behind us.

The snake swiveled up a tree and lunged at us from above. I was still clutching my sick stomach so Sasuke threw a load of shuriken to fend off the gigantic snake. We settled on a high up branch and kept our senses alert for any signs of more danger that was bound to come.

The skin of the snake began to split and the enemy emerged from inside of it… to be honest, it was really disgusting….

Still emerging, the snake man swept back his damp hair and growled, "Shame for letting your guard down! Stay on your toes, like good pray should! It makes the chase so much more rewarding…for the predator!" He stretched his body and coiled up and around the tree, speeding towards us.

He was stopped in his tracks by a flurry of kunai and shuriken, thrown from another direction. Naruto stood triumphantly on a tree across from us. He grinned and called, "Sorry Sasuke… I can't remember that stupid password!"


	11. Curses

I'm so sorry about the long wait; I've been very busy lately.

"Great job Naruto!" Cheered Sakura but Sasuke whipped around to face Naruto.

"Naruto! I know you think you're cool and here to save us but forget it! Run away! This one is on a whole 'nother level!" Sasuke's voice was edged with panic and tension.

The snake man chuckled, "Heh heh, looks like you successfully defeated that giant snake… Naruto-kun." The way Naruto's name rolled off his tongue… was disturbing, to say the least.

Naruto huffed, "Hey! Hey! It looks like you're picking on the weak!"

I scowled.

Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan and held out the scroll, "I will give you the scroll. Please…take it and leave us." He glared at a tree, not daring to look at the snake man.

My eyebrows creased in astonishment, _"Sasuke, what are you—"_

Naruto interrupted me in an explosion of anger and frustration. I closed off the sound and concentrated on formulation a plan. I was vaguely aware of Sasuke throwing the enemy the scroll, which was intercepted by Naruto and the arguments and beatings that followed.

My mind was working, _"We need to all work together…Naruto can use his clones as a distraction to keep the enemy in a relatively enclosed space. Then, Sakura and I can throw kunai at the enemy, which he'll obviously dodge. The kunai will be attached to flammable wire, so once enough are thrown, all in different areas, he'll be surrounded with wire, though he won't be aware of it. Then, Sakura will jump onto a high branch, directly above the snake man, and give the wires to Sasuke. Then, I'll preform my 'Doton: Ganchuusou' to thrust him into the air and limit his movements. Sasuke will pull the wires which will trap and bind the snake man. Then he'll use one of his fire jutsus. If that doesn't finish the enemy, he'll be mostly dead, and I'll take care of him with my Byakugan."_

I broke free of my thoughts and saw Naruto, face to face with Sasuke, blocking a giant snake. Naruto was bleeding pretty badly but seemed to be laughing as he asked Sasuke something that was probably offensive.

"_Everyone, listen to me!"_ I called to my team mates, _"I have a plan"_ So I quickly relayed my plans to the team, and thank goodness, they all decided to cooperate.

Naruto activated a mass amount of clones and was shortly engaged in battle with the snake man.

Sasuke took his position on a high tree branch to await the later steps of the plan.

Sakura and I threw wire attached to kunai at the enemy, who, as anticipated, dodged every one of them. After about three minutes, a good, 45 kunai were stuck to trees, the ground, bushes, you name it. I handed off my wires to Sakura who leapt up to Sasuke.

I ran a few meters away, _"Naruto, scram!"_ I gave the signal. He jumped away, leaving a few clones and I yelled, _"Doton: Ganchuusou!"_

As planned, the man was painfully flown into the air and Sasuke bound him with the wires. Wires were attached to Sasuke's hands; he made a few seals, filled his lungs with chakra, and expelled a long thread of fire from his mouth, onto the wires, directed at the enemy.

We waited with anticipation, as the flames cleared after contact with the enemy. What I hadn't realized, was that this man had the disgusting ability to shed his skin, in an attempt to escape. It seemed that he escaped with a few burns but was otherwise unharmed.

Before he could regain his senses, I lunged in, and struck him with my gentle fist technique. He managed to dodge a few strikes and as I thrust my hand forward, he wrapped his abnormally long tongue around my wrist, and twisted it.

Immense pain throbbed through my wrist and I stumbled, clutching it with my left hand. The snake man grinned at me and hissed, "I didn't recognize you at first, but it seems that we meet again... Hyūga Hotaru. What a pleasure…and you've matured so much. It was you that formed that plan wasn't it? Impressive, but how you told your team mates that plan is quite amazing. If I remember correctly, you were made mute but in the process, accidently received telepathic skills. I'd like to know more about how that occurred. You could be of much use to me. Pity I couldn't keep track of you before."

I was drawing a blank. I was in the midst of an adrenaline rush and his words were not making entire sense to me. My mind wasn't processing the fact that he seemed to know me from some past experience.

A moment later, Naruto barged in and flung me away from the villain. I landed clumsily on the same branch as Sasuke, who steadied my landing.

As the snake man preformed some sort of strange seal on Naruto, I ripped off some of my kimono shirt and wrapped it snugly around my wrist, to hold it in a more comfortable position.

Sakura was screaming and Sasuke reactivated his Sharingan. He took out a shuriken and several kunai, and ran along the trees; the enemy followed. Sasuke did something similar to our earlier plan and after throwing the weapons with wire attached, bound the villain to a tree, and preformed a fire technique. I was sure that the binds were inescapable. Indeed, when the flames cleared, the skin on his face was burned, though, it seemed to reveal, whiter, unharmed flesh underneath. I jumped down next to Sasuke as the snake man said something that made Sasuke yell, "Who the hell are you?"

He smirked, held up our scroll, set it on fire, and said, "My name is Orochimaru. If you want to see me again, then survive and pass this exam. Of course, defeating my men, the sound nin trio on the way"

Sakura glared, "What the hell are you talking about? We'd never want to see your face again!"

He began forming seals, "Heh heh… It won't go that way…"

My eyes widened and I began to tremble. _"No way…you're Orochimaru?"_

Before anyone could register what I had said, his face and neck split into two whole heads. His neck elongated and sped toward us. I backed up, but not fast enough. One of the heads latched onto Sasuke's neck, and the other onto mine; he sank his fangs into our flesh. Half a second later, he detached himself and Sasuke and I fell to our knees in pain.

Sasuke cried out in agony while I writhed on the ground silently, in pain. It felt like thousands of needles were repeatedly being stabbed deep into my neck.

Distantly, I was aware of Sakura shrieking angrily; afraid, and confused.

My vision began to swim and I held back the tears that threatened to spill down my cheeks. It was more pain than even the seizures brought on. It quickly became unbearable, and I blacked out, praying that Sakura would be okay on her own.

I had terrible dreams; dreams of the crimson room, of being tested. I dreamt of Neji and Sasuke peeling off their faces to reveal Orochimaru's. Honestly, it was terrifying.

I slowly began to regain conciseness but what really woke me was the sound of a loud snap. I sat up straight and found myself overflowing with energy. I stood, surrounded in a purple glow, and covered in swirly, cloud-like markings. I gazed at my surroundings. Neji Onii-san and Tenten stood on a tree branch supporting Lee, and Shikamaru's team seemed to be hiding behind a cluster of shrubs. Naruto was unconscious next to me, Sakura, whom was now short haired, sat several yards away, beaten up and bleeding, and Sasuke, also covered in strange marks and purple chakra, was holding some guy's arms behind his back, upon which was Sasuke's foot. It seemed that that was where the sound had come from and the man was still sobbing in pain.

I grinned as a feeling of bloodlust flooded through my veins. I walked slowly over to Sasuke but out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sakura leap up, run to Sasuke, and throw her arms around him. I stopped in my tracks and watched her sob into his shirt, begging him to stop. The marks on my body began to retract, as did the ones on Sasuke. He fell to his knees, still being embraced by Sakura. Spectator eyes had also wondered to me now and as I wobbled, Neji jumped out of the tree, steadied me, and placed me on the ground in a sitting position. "Hotaru-chan, are you all right?" he murmured.

I nodded slowly. _"You should leave. We're holding you up…."_

He sighed and got up and departed with his team.

The last guy standing on the team Sasuke had beaten up, handed over his scroll and left after explaining that he didn't know exactly what Orochimaru was up to.

A short time later, Naruto woke up and, not realizing that it was half a day later, started yelling about Orochimaru and engaged in a bombardment of questions.

Shikamaru brought over some rags drenched in water and handed them to me. "Clean yourself up." He said, and plopped down on a patch of dirt next to me. "This whole thing was troublesome…."

"_Thanks."_ I wiped off my grime covered face, _"I'm not even going to bother asking what exactly happened." _

He gave a small sideways grin and sighed, "Saves me the trouble."

"_When this is all done, we should play a few rounds of shoji…"_

"Yeah, sounds good."

A few minutes later, I went down to a nearby stream. I examined myself. There was no curse mark on my neck. It was, in fact, on my forehead. Though Orochimaru had bitten me on the neck, the curse mark didn't appear there. My thinking, is that because I already have one curse mark, given to me from my clan, this new curse mark subdued and possibly even canceled out the effects of my clan's curse. The green mark was not greed anymore; it had turned black because of Orochimaru's curse. All I know is that this curse mark granted me both pain, and power. It might have even perhaps freed me from the Hyūga family curse. I found myself both in awe, and disgusted with Orochimaru.

The rest of the day went my slowly as team seven recovered and Shikamaru's team went their own way.

I sat deep in thought about Orochimaru; why was he here, why had he appeared now, and why the hell had he placed a curse mark on me and Sasuke?


	12. Effects

**I'll be going on vacation for the next three weeks so there probably won't be any updates until I return.**

**/**

The day after those strange occurrences, I found myself and the rest of the team at the stream I had visited last night. We were catching fish. Naruto would fling them into the air, and Sasuke would catch them with Kunai. Sakura was setting up the fire.

Sitting around the small fire, eating the roasted fish, we discussed the strategy and how much time we have left. A thought also came up that there may not be any more heaven scrolls because of the time that has passed and the amount of teams aloud to move on. We concluded that whomever we encountered next would be out last chance.

Sasuke and I got up to go retrieve some water and as we approached Sasuke said, "One of us should probably have stayed behind to make sure those two don't get into trouble."

I yawned, _"You're probably right…."_

We headed back and sure enough, as we rounded the corner, Kabuto stood holding Naruto's hand, containing the scroll.

Alarmed, we rushed over and Kabuto explained that Naruto was about to open the scroll and that doing so was a terrible idea.

Sasuke glared at them, "Geez, what were you thinking…."

"_From now on, one of us should be here to supervise them, as exhausting as it is…."_ I muttered to Sasuke.

He sighed and nodded.

Sasuke was suspicious of Kabuto and after it was revealed that Kabuto had both scrolls, Sasuke challenged him to a duel. Kabuto declined and we quickly decided to keep moving and take the scroll of anyone we encountered on the way to the watch tower.

As evening approached, I took note of our surroundings; we were on a narrow dirt path with trees sprouting high on either side; several clusters of bushes, and a giant centipede that Naruto had just stabbed lay dead, pinned to a tree…

We traveled for hours, becoming tired of all the walking and the tower seemed no closer than before. And then… we spotted the centipede from before... I cursed silently as we realized that we had been placed under a Genjutsu and were being watched an enemy was probably ready to attack.

All around us, masked men appeared, extending from tree branches, appearing up from the ground and climbing out of bushes.

We took our defensive positions and quickly established that these were clones as one of them snickered, "You're trapped rats."

"Shut up" Naruto yelled, and ran at one of the clones stabbing it. It turns out that even though the clones are weak, they can regenerate and split into more clones. They were made of some glue-like substance….

Sasuke threw shuriken and it had the same effect. The clone turned and threw a kunai at Sasuke.

Kabuto and I both lunged to intercept it at the same time but I am smaller and was knocked out of the way.

When Kabuto recovered, he was bleeding from a long, but shallow cut on his arm.

I narrowed my eyes as Naruto wondered about how these clones couldn't be shadow clones because they didn't disappear after receiving a direct hit but couldn't be a Genjutsu because their attacks were real.

I activated my Byakugan but immediately deactivated it because of a sharp stab of pain that rocketed through my forehead. I clutched my head as more questions about the curse mark bubbled into my mind.

Naruto yelled and charged again but Sasuke intervened, "Don't! It's useless! They are illusions… this is enemy Genjutsu."

"B-but Kabuto-san's injury is real…" Sakura exclaimed as she tried to grasp his logic.

Kabuto shook his head, "No, Sasuke-kun is correct. The enemy is most likely hiding somewhere and matching their attacks with the movements of the fake shinobi so that it will seem like the illusions are attacking."

"_I'd use my Byakugan but for some reason, the bite I received from that Orochimaru guy seems to cause me great pain when I activate it…"_ I shook my head in dismay.

After further discussing what the enemy was thinking, we decided to stay and fight but soon, it was discovered that doing so was just wasting energy. We came up with a plan to use Naruto's shadow clones so that we could hide and rest while waiting for the enemy to come out.

I felt incredibly useless. This seal made me feel stronger but when I activated me kekkei genkai, the pain is unbearable. Using my Byakugan to solve things would be so much faster and not being able to activate that which comes naturally, feels quite terrible.

An hour or two later, what we had been waiting for finally happened. Three masked men appeared, believing they had us cornered. "You…" One of the men addressed the Sasuke clone, "You're the guy that stabbed me… I finally found you. Making things so difficult… lucky… I can return the favor!"

Our clones disappeared and the real us emerged. "You're trapped rats." Sasuke replied haughtily.

"It went perfectly!" giggled Sakura.

The masked men recoiled and yelled in shock.

Naruto and Sasuke explained our strategy and the men fell to their knees in defeat.

(I still don't understand why they would explain our tactics rather than take the enemy out quickly. A ninja shouldn't reveal their secrets…)

Sasuke was about to finish them off but Naruto went ahead and did it himself, shouting about how he hated that Sasuke always stole the spot light.

The masked men proceeded to use Ninjutsu but when Naruto attacked, he went right through them.

Sasuke activated his Sharingan but the same thing that happened to me, happened to him. He fell back in pain and was forced to deactivate his kekkei genkai. He grasped his painful shoulder and glared at the enemy with a mixture of anger and confusion.

Naruto continued his attempt to destroy the strange clones. One of them made a move to stab him but Kabuto, yet again intervened, shoving Naruto out of the way and taking the blow himself.

Finally I realized that they were attacking from below, using their clone's shadows as cover. I saw this as they attacked Kabuto's motionless body. They left an opening however, and Naruto beat them to the ground. They didn't get back up….

As Naruto celebrated upon finding a much desired heaven scroll, Kabuto approached me and Sasuke. "What is that thing?" He motioned to the not-completely-subdued curse marks on both of our necks, "An injury? It's a horrible mark…"

I looked away and remained silent and Sasuke muttered, "It's nothing…"

Kabuto turned away to talk to Naruto and I glanced at Sasuke, _"His indifference is suspicious…" _

"Aah…" Sasuke nodded in solemn agreement.

Exhausted, we continued forward and met up with Kabuto's team not far from the tower. Despite their complaints, they accepted our apology and we left them to enter the watch tower.

The room we were directed to was empty except for a plaque on the wall. We concluded that we needed to open the scrolls and did so. Inside were the characters for a summoning jutsu. Naruto and Sakura threw the scrolls at the opposite wall in alarm. A cloud of smoke and a loud 'poof' filled the room and once it cleared, we found ourselves face to face with Iruka-sensei.

"Long time no see." He grinned at us. He explained that he was chosen to greet us when the scrolls were opened and had we opened it before, he would have had to knock us out, thus resulting in our failure. He congratulated us on not being foolish and being able to pass the second exam… just on time.

Naruto jumped around with excitement and the rest of us, not having nearly that much stamina, plopped onto the floor, wanting desperately to rest.

Iruka-sensei turned to the plaque and told us that he'd explain it. Basically he explained that we each have things we need to work on and to do so, we need to first accept our flaws, then work hard to fix them. He explained the purpose of this second exam and after an outburst from Naruto about how he was going to ace this exam, Iruka sent us off to the third exam site.

Like all the other tests, we were told what the purpose for this one was; to promote friendship and maintain the same level of shinobi throughout the lands. Apparently this is also more of a competition to gain clients. "The replacement for war" as Hokage-sama called it….

Many shinobi were shocked to see that so many people remained and it seemed that usually fewer people made it through so our next examiner said we must take a preliminary round to lower the number of test-takers before going on to the third and final exam.

We were offered the opportunity to quit and Sakura felt strongly that Sasuke should quit because of the curse mark.

(I've noticed by now that she really doesn't care about me).

Sasuke harshly refused and pretty much told her to shut up about it.

Kabuto raised his hand, "Umm…"

Realizing that he was about to quit, I quickly interrupted, _"Kabuto, there won't be an even amount of people if you quit. Why would you want to fail again? Stay, and you might actually pass for once."_ I was already suspicious of Kabuto but him wanting to quit baffled me and further fueled my suspicion.

He stared at me with a quizzical expression but lowered his hand and said to the examiner, "Never mind."

Our examiner explained how the preliminaries would work then gave a small cough and rasped, "Now, this is sudden but let's announce the two names for the first fight."


	13. Preliminaries

I am incredibly sorry for the late update. I have all accelerated/AP classes (except math) this year so homework comes in extreme amounts. I also joined tennis and we practice after school each day (and Saturday) for three hours. So basically, I've been SUPER busy… I don't know when the next update will be.

Also this chapter is all of the preliminary fights but I changed/added a few things so read carefully please.

The screen fuzzed and names whirred across the screen. It came to a halt and read, **'Uchiha Sasuke VS Akado Yoroi'. **

Sasuke's opponent had the ability to suck out people's chakra. Sasuke might have lost had he not used the attack that Lee used on him before the exams. At that point, the curse mark began acting up but Sasuke suppressed it and beat Akado.

Kakashi exited with Sasuke. I figured that it had something to do with the curse mark.

The next match was between Zaku Abumi and Aburame Shino.

I remembered that Zaku was the guy that Sasuke beat up during the second exam.

The battle went by quickly. Zaku's arms burst off his body due to Shino's bugs and it wasn't long before Shino was declared the winner.

Kakashi appeared and said that Sasuke was fine; just sleeping. He pulled me aside and said that after my match, he'd have to seal my curse mark too.

Tsuguri Misumi against Kankuro was the next match. Tsuguri seemed to have a Kekkei Genkai that allowed his body to stretch like rubber.

Kankuro on the other hand, was a puppet master and came out victorious.

Then it was Sakura's turn. She faced off against Yamanaka Ino and even after 10 minutes of fighting, it was a dead lock; their skills were equal. After a while, Ino cut off her hair, used it as a medium, and took control of Sakura's mind. Sakura however, overcame the jutsu. They went at it again, with equal strength and it looked like the spar would end in a duel but Sakura, after taking a hit, struggled to her feet and was pronounced the winner.

Temari VS Tenten came next. Tenten gave it her all and even used her scrolls, however, Temari used a wind technique and Tenten lost mostly out of exhaustion.

There was some quickly resolved commotion from Lee about his team mate's loss but we had to move on.

Shikamaru faced off against Kin Tsuchi. He caught on that she, like the rest of her team, used sound as their primary element. Shikamaru was smart and came up with a strategy that easily defeated Kin.

The seventh match was Naruto VS Inuzuka Kiba. Kiba had the upper hand for pretty much the whole battle. He and his dog Akamaru were in perfect sync but after giving Naruto a serious beating, Naruto transformed into Kiba in an attempt to confuse the pair. That took out Akamaru and Kiba was about to deliver the final blow when Naruto passed gas right in his face. While Kiba was writhing in disgust, Naruto defeated him with his shadow clones.

The next match… was Hinata against Neji.

"I never thought I'd be facing you Hinata-sama…." Neji muttered.

"Neji-Oniisan…" Hinata whispered, her face was full of fear.

"Wait, you're all siblings!" yelled Naruto, staring down at them and then back at me.

I shook my head. _"Neji and I are actual siblings. Hinata is our cousin. There are two branches of the Hyūga line; the main branch, which Hinata is the heir of, and the side branch that contains Neji and I."_

"Doesn't that make fighting difficult," Sakura asked.

I was about to reply sourly but Kakashi intervened, sensing trouble, "Many things have happened between the two houses over the years…and right now they do not get along very well."

"Why?" Naruto inquired.

"_That's because-" _

I was about to explain but Lee interrupted, "This is normal with old houses but… in order to protect the the blood and house of the original Hyūga family, many rules have been established that put the Main family in an advantageous situation… because of this, the side branch feels slighted."

"_That doesn't even cover the crimes they've committed against my family…" _I hissed.

Naruto looked at me curiously, "What happ-"

I gave him a cold glare that shut him up.

We turned to watch. Neji said he wanted to say a few things before they began. Everything Neji said to Hinata, I agreed with. Perhaps it was cruel, but true none-the-less. After a while of Neji's talking Naruto exploded with anger, yelled encouragingly to Hinata, and insulted Neji.

"_Shut up, Naruto,"_ I growled, smacking him upside the head.

Naruto turned to me angrily, "How can you put up with that bastard?! He's a total jerk!"

"_What do you know?!"_ My voice rose inside our minds, _"You know __**nothing**__ of the Hyūga family and what has occurred between the branches! Besides, Neji is right. He and I surpass Hinata-sama by so much that it's shameful to her! Don't go spewing insults before you know each person's situation! Neji will beat her easily."_ I was quite clearly pissed.

Naruto fumed angrily and turned back to the stadium with a grunt.

Hinata confirmed that she would not back down and so they commenced the fight.

They were both fast; actually, I was surprised that Hinata could keep up. Somehow Hinata gained control after the first minute; I watched with a stony stare.

Throughout the fight, Lee and Kakashi-sensei explained the workings of the Byakugan to my team. Occasionally, I'd receive an amazed glance from Sakura or Naruto.

Neji quickly regained the lead and after three hits, Hinata was on the ground trembling. I wished I was the one down there dealing out the blows. It would be a fitting start to my revenge….

As Hinata stood, she doubled over in pain. _"If she doesn't give up now, she'll surely die."_ I said loftily to know one in particular, but my team mates looked at me in shock. I shrugged, _"That is the power of the Byakugan."_

Naruto yelled in encouragement again.

Hinata stood tall, lunged at Neji and again was thrown back. It occurred yet again and this time, we were all sure that she was done. However, She stood up and whispered "None of that is true, Neji-Oniisan… because because I can see it… The person that is lost and suffering within the destiny of the main and branch houses…is you, and perhaps Hotaru-chan as well."

I snapped.… I jumped down from the ledge where we were watching and at the same time, Neji and I ran angrily at Hinata.

The examiner, and Gai restrained Neji and Kakashi, along with Kurenai appeared behind me and restrained me.

Gai glared at Neji, "Neji give it a rest. You gave me a warm promise not to lose your head over this main branch family stuff."

Kakashi nodded in agreement, "Hotaru, you need to calm down too."

Neji glared at them, "Why do even the other Jōnins jump in… Oh, more **special treatment** for the main family…."

"_Did you hear what she __**said**__?!"_ I twitched angrily in Kakashi-sensei's hold. His grip was firm.

Hinata fell to the ground with a gasp and coughed up more blood. The medical team was called in.

When Neji and I were finally released, Neji called out to Naruto. He told him, as a shinobi, that cheering isn't appropriate and he said that a 'loser is always a loser.'

Naruto lunged Neji in an attempt to 'knock some sense into him' but Lee intercepted him explaining that now was not the time to fight. Naruto wiped his hand through Hinata's blood and swore that he would he would defeat Neji.

I snorted. There was no way that'd happen.

Bitterly, I returned to the ledge to watch the next fight; Gaara VS Rock Lee.

Though I was distracted, the match was incredibly interesting. Lee was repeatedly flung away by the force of Gaara's sand shield.

Eventually Gai told Lee to "Take them off." And I knew he meant the extremely heavy weights that Lee always wore under his leg warmers.

I smirked as everyone's mouths dropped at the explosion of sound that came when Lee dropped the weights. 'These people have such narrow minds.' I thought….

Now, Gaara's sand could barely keep up with Lee's attacks. Finally Lee landed some blows but it seemed that Gaara was covered in an extra layer of sand. Lee proceeded to use the Initial Lotus technique but he had attacked a sand clone instead. They exchanged attacks for a short while until… Lee opened five of the 'celestial gates'. His attacks became hundreds of times stronger and Gaara could do nothing about it. Lee made a final move but Gaara protected himself with his guard and then enveloped one of Lee's arms and legs… and crushed them.

Gaara would have killed Lee without a second thought if Gai hadn't appeared and protected Lee's motionless body. Even after Gaara won, Lee got back up, ready to fight even though he was unconscious.

Then I heard something that shocked and disturbed me; the medical ninja said that in this condition, Lee would never be able to live as a shinobi again….

I thought I'd be called next but instead, Chouji went up against the last of the sound ninja. The match was over in forty seconds. Chouji used a Ninjutsu to expand his body but because sound waves don't only travel through the ears, Chouji was knocked unconscious when the enemy activated his sound weapon.

At last it was my turn. I was glad to have been last. That way, I'd been able to watch all the matches and observe all the contestants for the third round. I'd learned a lot but now, I had to fight Kabuto.

I jumped down and faced him. "Gee, I didn't think I'd have to fight you Hotaru-san," Kabuto sighed.

"_That's what they all say…"_

I took my taijutsu stance as the instructor yelled, "The eleventh and final match…. BEGIN!"


	14. Defeat

.:Mirrors Of Vengeance:. (Sasuke Love Story) *part 14*

**Hello everyone. Happy New Year! I'm back and I apologize for the long long long wait. I've got literally no time to spare so this chapter was rushed and probably not of the highest quality. I've been rather stressed lately and finals are coming up so please understand that updates will not be incredibly often. Probably every 2 weeks. Again, I'm sorry about these circumstances but it's good to be writing again.**

Recap:

**At last it was my turn. I was glad to have been last. That way, I'd been able to watch all the matches and observe all the contestants for the third round. I'd learned a lot but now, I had to fight Kabuto.**

**I jumped down and faced him. "Gee, I didn't think I'd have to fight you Hotaru-san," Kabuto sighed.**

"_**That's what they all say…"**_

**I took my taijutsu stance as the instructor yelled, "The eleventh and final match…. BEGIN!"**

I had rested for a good few hours because of all the matches before mine. I wondered if I'd be able to activate my Byakugan without the cursed seal acting up… It was worth a shot.

Wearily, Kabuto came at me, intending to use Taijutsu. I slid under his arm and slammed my elbow into his back. As he stumbled I activated my Byakugan.

It happened again; the immense pain that caused me to immediately release it. I jumped backwards as Kabuto spun around, recovering from my previous hit.

I noticed that Naruto wasn't cheering for me. I was grateful for the lack of distraction.

I took on Kabuto in a taijutsu spar. He might have a stronger kick or punch because he was bigger than me, but I was fast and gained the upper hand. I found an opening and shoved my fist into his chest and he went flying. Pity I wasn't using the Byakugan; that would have almost finished him.

Kabuto got back up and made a few hand signs. His hands began to glow with ragged blue chakra. I figured I needed to stay away from that.

I started to make hand seals to but he threw a kunai that forced me to stop the signs and dodge. I still received a cut on my palm.

Taking this opportunity, Kabuto ran at me and managed to graze my shoulder with his chakra enveloped hand.

My body tingled and felt distorted; all of my nerves seemed to be switched in some way.

I looked up in shock, the expression in my eyes saying, _'Do explain.'_

Kabuto smirked, "It'll wear off eventually but it's a type of medical jutsu that switches the nerves and the signals they send to the brain."

As he explained, I tested out each finger and limb to see what would actually move. Slowly, I moved my hands behind my back and, still slowly, formed hand signs as Kabuto talked.

Suddenly, my earth spikes sprouted up, one stabbed his left foot and another caught under his right arm and thrust him into the air.

I had slowly, but successfully preformed my _Doton; Ganchuusou jutsu._ It was encouraging to know that I could still preform normal jutsus despite the curse's effect on my kekkei genkai.

I tried moving my thumbs, which ended up making me jump up towards Kabuto's air-born body. I then tried to move my right foot, which caused me to punch Kabuto into the wall.

I fell back to the floor, not figuring out how to maneuver fast enough to regain my balance.

Kabuto leapt back up and walked over to me. I struggled to stand but he took advantage of my confused state and punched me a few times.

I landed several feet away and decided that it was time to finish this. I knew that Kabuto wasn't giving it his all because he'd never wanted to do this in the first place but I was growing tired of it.

I made some hand seals, a little bit faster this time, _"Doton: Dochu Eigyo no Jutsu," _and disappeared.

I was under the concrete floor, which from my perspective was transparent. I traveled stealthily through the ground until I was almost directly under Kabuto. By now, he'd realized that I could be nowhere but underneath and was about to punch the floor.

His jutsu had worn off though and I could move freely. I was faster and my hands reached up, penetrating the ground and grabbed his ankles pulling him into the concrete.

I then broke through the floor several feet away and saw Kabuto trapped; only his head showing above the floor.

I looked up and saw Kakashi-sensei smile; he'd preformed that jutsu on Sasuke during our training exercise. I'd been working on improving it ever since I'd seen him do it.

The examiner crouched down next to Kabuto and seeing that it'd be impossible for him to get out of my trap without assistance, raised his hand. "The winner of the eleventh match is Hyūga Hotaru!"

I smirked but before I could go back up to the platform, Kakashi-sensei appeared beside me.

He dipped his head to the examiner and Hokage-sama, "Excuse us," he said, taking hold of my shoulder. We both disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

We reappeared in some sort of dungeon, surrounded by pillars; the roots that supported Konoha.

"Hotaru, I'm going to have to ask you to remove your kimono in order to write the sealing runes for the procedure…" I could tell that Kakashi-sensei felt bad about having to ask this of me but I didn't protest.

I stripped the upper half of my body down to my bra and tried hard to ignore the fact that under normal circumstances, this would be completely inappropriate.

Kakashi proceeded to write Japanese symbols (using his own blood) down my back, chest and face. Then he wrote across the floor and several pillars. He had also placed several kunai on the ground as markers.

My head protector had been removed and my forehead was bear, exposing both curse marks. Kakashi-sensei knelt before me, preformed a few hand seals, and placed his palm on my forehead.

Pain seared through my head and neck, where I'd been bit. Then my whole body felt as if I'd just experienced major frost bite and was only now beginning to warm up. It was a horrible, tingly and altogether, a very painful sensation. I fought the urge to clench my fists or curl my body into a ball. I trembled violently until finally, the pain eased away.

I gasped, not realizing that I had been holding my breath.

"I did this for Sasuke too." Kakashi began, "The next time the curse becomes active this seal should keep it in check. However, this new seal relies on the strength of your will. If you lose belief in yourself, Hotaru, and your will weakens, the curse will run wild.

I barely nodded before I fell on my stomach, unconscious.

I was shaken awake a day or two later by Sasuke, who claimed that Kakashi wanted to train him and that I might as well tag along.

He handed me a fresh batch of cloths that had been in a dresser in the hospital room; Neji had dropped them off apparently.

He left the room momentarily as I changed and I followed him out through the window, not wanting to be spotted by anyone familiar.

We climbed to the top of the canyon on the outskirts of Konoha; a long and rough climb; the point being not to use chakra to build up physical strength. Atop the canyon was where we were supposed to meet Kakashi.

An hour or two later he arrived and we proceeded with warm ups. We spent the following days training vigorously on new jutsus. Sasuke was learning a high ranked lightning technique and I was in the process of trying to ease my way into being able to use the Byakugan again. The curse mark was persistent and if I wanted to be able to use it properly for the final exam, I would need to put up a serious effort to control it.

Kakashi also explained to us how the exams were supposed to work and that we would be judged based upon how well we fight. We now have a month to prepare. I wasn't too worried upon finding out that I'd be battling Sakura. However Sasuke would be against Gaara of the Sand… so far as I can tell, the kid is strong and that could be serious trouble for Sasuke in his current state.

And so, for the next several weeks, Sasuke and I trained under Kakashi-sensei's guidance. We spoke to no one: in-fact we didn't even see anyone else for we woke early each morning to climb the mountain. We packed meals and ate up there during the short breaks we took amidst the intense training.

We both made a lot of progress and were confident in our skills.

Finally, the day of the final exams arrived and I left before Sasuke. He'd spent all night hurriedly perfecting his new jutsu and Kakashi insisted that Sasuke needed more time to rest before he could fight. I made him swear they wouldn't be too incredibly late.

All the contestants were lined up and told to face forward. Naruto and Sakura were giving me questioning looks. They were probably wondering where on earth Sasuke and I had disappeared to for almost a month.

We were announced as the Chuunin exam test takers and were reminded of the battle lineup.

Naruto thrust his hand in the air, "Hey, hey! Sasuke isn't here yet, what are you gonna do?"

The examiner looked bored, "If he doesn't appear by the time of his match, he will receive a default loss." The examiner then explained the regulations regarding winning and losing. Neji and Naruto were to stay and the rest of us were dismissed to the waiting room.

The fight slowly took shape. Naruto and Neji exchanged a few words and I watched intently, not at all worried for my brother. Naruto made the first move but Neji easily gained the upper hand. It was clear from the very beginning that Neji was superior. Pleased with himself, Neji provoked Naruto, calling him ignorant and a failure. All throughout the fight Naruto put forth all his effort but Neji still reined strong, pulling out impressive kekkei genkai jutsus here and there. And then Neji preformed the finishing move- or what should've been the finishing move. He completed the Gentle fist, 64 hands of Hakke.

I grinned regretfully thinking, _'Thanks Neji, now everyone knows my secret jutsu as well. I suppose it can't be helped though…'_

I was sure it was over… until Naruto stood and screamed insults at Neji. My eyes narrowed angrily and Neji removed his forehead protector. Several ninjas in the waiting room glanced at me; I clenched my fists.

Neji told our story; the story of how our father died because of the selfish main branch and that our curse faded only by death. There was an audible gasp from the stands and eyes turned in horror from Neji to me, and back again.

I stood, ripped off my forehead protector and cried out to the crowd, _"You see, our rage is not uncalled for! None of you could possibly comprehend our pain. We deserve none of this, yet you see us here, crippled as such because of burdens that were forced upon us."_ I spat the words bitterly out from my mind and in that moment my telepathy reached the minds of everyone in the stadium, even those whose names I didn't know. My own lust for reconciliation had expanded my telepathic ability.

Then to my dismay and complete disbelief, Naruto produced a strange chakra and the fight flipped up-side-down; the energy of the spar increased dramatically and with a simple trick, Naruto defeated Neji- a feat I had believed to be impossible from someone like Naruto. I clenched my teeth and headed down the enclosed staircase that led to the arena. My match against Sakura was next and I had no desire to hear the declaration of my brother's loss. My anger drowned out the thundering applause and my body trembled with the desire to redeem the branch family. I was disappointed in Neji but my hatred towards the main branch only grew. The fire within me fueled my strength and power; there was no way that I was going to lose against Sakura Haruno.


End file.
